Who Is Larissa Nery, Brazil Model At Centre Of Rahul Gandhi's H-Bomb Row

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi levelled fresh allegations about vote theft on Wednesday. At a press conference, he claimed that a Brazilian woman 'voted' 22 times in Haryana from 10 polling booths.

However, the woman has reacted to the controversy and has been identified as Larissa Nery.

Who Is Larissa Nery?

The woman who got caught in the crosshairs of the political row is a hairdresser from Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil.

She has a salon in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais.

Larissa claimed that the photo of her being used for votes in India was originally clicked by photographer Matheus Ferrero in 2017 and uploaded to a royalty-free photo site called Unsplash. However, Ferrero has now deleted her image from his profile.

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She clarified on an intagram video that the photo was taken when she was 20 years old and said, "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! What craziness is this? What world do we live in?"

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She also added, "I have absolutely nothing to do with politics in India. My photo was purchased from a stock image platform and used without my involvement. It's not me, I've never even been to India," she clarified in a video, adding, "I'm a Brazilian digital influencer and a hairdresser, and I love the Indian people."

She has now made her Instagram account private.