New Delhi: Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that large-scale electoral fraud took place during the Haryana Assembly elections, claiming that a Brazilian model’s photo was used on multiple voter IDs to cast fake votes.

At a press conference, Gandhi said he had received “credible complaints” from Congress candidates indicating major discrepancies between postal ballots and booth-level results. He alleged that “for the first time, postal votes were completely different from actual voting,” describing the alleged manipulation as a “vote chori” — or “vote theft” — operation.

‘Brazil model’ and vote fraud claims

Gandhi presented a photograph of a woman whom he claimed had voted 22 times across ten different booths in Haryana. He said the image was actually that of a Brazilian model photographed by Matheus Ferrero, alleging it was used fraudulently to create multiple voter profiles.

“This is just one example,” Gandhi said, adding that the Congress had identified “around 25 lakh fake voters” through similar irregularities. “They used a Brazilian model’s photo, UP leaders voting in Haryana, house number zero, blurred photographs and deleted voters — that’s how they got ahead by 22,000 votes,” he alleged.

Targeting BJP and Election Commission

Accusing the BJP of orchestrating the fraud, Gandhi said the election “was not a contest but a partnership,” claiming the Election Commission acted in collusion with the Prime Minister and Home Minister.

“It’s a systematic method evolved by them to kill Indian democracy and the Constitution,” Gandhi said. He added that similar “vote chori” patterns had been observed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Bihar.

Video of Haryana CM shown

During the briefing, Gandhi also played a video purportedly showing Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini two days after the election. In the clip, Saini is heard saying, “I told this earlier — BJP is going to create a one-sided government here in Haryana. We have all the resources, don’t you worry.”

Gandhi claimed Saini’s “smile and words” in the video hinted that “something was deeply wrong with the election process.”

Deleted and added voters

Rahul Gandhi invited several Bihar voters to the stage, who claimed their names were deleted or replaced during the election. One voter alleged that 187 names were deleted and around 350 were added in his locality.

“The win was not earned — it was engineered,” Gandhi concluded.