- The woman in Rahul Gandhi's fake voter ID claim said the card is not hers and that she voted legally
- Rahul Gandhi had alleged fraud in Haryana, citing a single ID used 22 times with a Brazilian woman's photo
- The BJP and the Election Commission dismissed Gandhi's claims, calling them baseless and politically motivated
The woman at the centre of the 'Brazilian model row' told NDTV Thursday one of the fake voter ID cards Rahul Gandhi flagged this week - to add to what the Congress says is mounting evidence of large-scale fraud involving the Election Commission and the ruling BJP - is not actually hers.
"The card I have has my photo... the one Rahul Gandhi showed does not. I cast my vote. I don't know whose photo is (on the fake card)," said the woman, who identified herself as Munesh.
On Wednesday Gandhi said a single voter ID - with the photo of a Brazilian woman, apparently downloaded from stock image websites - was used to vote 22 times in Haryana's Rai last year, a seat the BJP's Krishna Gahlawat won, beating the Congress' Bhagwan Antil by 4,673 votes.
In response, the BJP's Kiren Rijiju criticised Gandhi for raising "fake issues" hours before the start of voting in Bihar. "There's nothing left in Bihar, so he's shifting the narrative to Haryana."
And EC sources pointed out the Congress had not filed any relevant appeal or objection during the review of the Haryana election result. Sources also dismissed the allegations as baseless and questioned the Congress' own vigilance during the electoral process.
During his presentation, Gandhi alleged massive voter fraud - 25 lakh votes, by his estimate - in the Haryana election. In that election the Congress got around 83,000 votes less than the BJP.
"This means one in eight voters in Haryana are fake... 12.5 per cent," he said.
The Congress leader then offered Munesh's 'voter ID card' as an example, and when someone pointed out the woman in the photograph did not appear to be from Haryana, he replied, "But she votes 22 times... she has got multiple names: Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla."
Larissa Nery (L), the Brazilian woman whose photograph is on a Haryana voter ID card.
The Congress leader then repeated his allegations of voter fraud, stating, "This is a centralised operation. Somebody fed this lady into the list at a centralised level, not at the booth level."
READ | "Brazil Model Voted 22 Times": Rahul Gandhi's H-Bomb, BJP Counters
Showing more instances of voter IDs with the same pictures but different names, he said, "The EC can remove duplicates in a second. Why don't they do it? Reason: they are helping the BJP."
"I am questioning the Election Commission and the democratic process in India, and I am doing this with 100 per cent proof. We are sure a plan was put in motion to convert Congress' landslide victory into a loss," he thundered, referring to his party's surprise Haryana loss.
The Congress had raced into an early lead as votes were counted, only for the BJP to make a late comeback and win 48 of the state's 90 seats. The Congress picked up 37 seats.
After Rahul Gandhi's presentation, an independent investigation by NDTV uncovered striking anomalies in Rai voter rolls. In Malikpur village in Sonipat district, for example, several voters - including four members of one family - had mysteriously disappeared from the list.
NDTV Special | "Vote Missing": Haryana Family On Rahul Gandhi's 'Vote Theft'
One voter, Anjali Tyagi, said she had voted in the federal election held in April-May last year, but could not vote in the Assembly election that was held five months later.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian woman whose photo was used in Munesh's ID card has been identified as Larissa Nery, a hairdresser who posed for that photograph eight years back, unaware that it would travel across the world and become the epicentre of a massive row.
READ | "What Madness Is This?" Brazilian Woman Viral After Rahul Gandhi H-Bomb
A video of Nery has now gone viral, in which she declares, "Guys, they are using an old photo of mine. It's an old photo, okay? I was like 18 or 20 years old. I don't know if it's an election or something about voting... And in India. Ah! They're portraying me as Indian to scam people, guys. What madness!"
NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.
