A hairdresser from Belo Horizonte has unwittingly become the center of an electoral controversy in India after her photo was used in allegations of fraud in elections in the state of Haryana.
The portrait of Larissa Nery, taken in 2017 and published on a free photo website, was used to register multiple voters with different names. The detail: she claims to have never been to India.
The case gained repercussion after the leader of the Indian opposition, Rahul Gandhi, presented the photo at a press conference to illustrate alleged irregularities in the voter registration.
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Gandhi accused the ruling BJP party and the Election Commission of India of manipulating the voter list, pointing out that around 2.5 million registrations were irregular, including duplicates and invalid addresses.
To reinforce his arguments, Gandhi showed slides showing Nery’s photo associated with several fictitious names, stating that the same person “voted” up to 22 times in different locations.
The BJP denied the allegations, and the Haryana Election Commission said it had sought clarification from Gandhi, without commenting specifically on Larissa’s case.
In an interview with BBCthe hairdresser stated that she discovered the case after being bombarded by messages and calls from Indian journalists.
“I thought it was artificial intelligence or some kind of joke. But then a lot of people started messaging me at the same time and I realized it was real,” said Larissa.
She stated that the harassment became so intense that she had to deactivate profiles on social media and remove the name of the salon where she works to avoid inconvenience.
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“I was scared. I don’t know if this is dangerous for me or if talking about it could harm someone there. I don’t know who is right or wrong because I don’t know the parties involved,” said the hairdresser.
