Dressed in coffee-coloured cargo pants and a white T-shirt, Rahul Gandhi started his news conference at noon on Wednesday. It began with the exit poll figures for the Haryana Assembly elections and a small video clip of the state’s Chief Minister. Soon after, a picture of a woman wearing a blue denim jacket appeared on the giant screen behind Rahul, with the words “Yeh Kaun Hai?” (Who is she?), written beside it.
The photo became an overnight sensation. Social media users, too, began searching for the identity behind the photo. Netizens, too, started trying to find answers to the very questions Rahul raised.
Why has the photo sparked controversy?
The picture has created controversy after it was reported that the same woman's photograph appeared multiple times in the voter list of Haryana, under different names like Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, and Bimla and many.
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Addressing the journalists, Rahul pointed to the woman’s photo and asked, “Who is this woman? How old is she? Which state is she from? What is her name? Can anyone try and tell me where she's from?” But no reply came.
Rahul said, “We are pretty sure that a plan was put in motion to convert Congress’s landslide victory into a loss. I want the young people, Gen Z of India, to understand this clearly because this is about your future. I am questioning the EC and the democratic process in India, and I am doing it with 100% proof.”
Rahul then disclosed that the picture was a stock photo free to use from photography websites such as Unsplash and Pexels. But who is she? Her name remained a mystery.
Rahul said that the list contained serious anomalies and claimed that out of around two crore voters, 25 lakh entries were invalid. He said, “That means one in every eight voters is fake, 12.5%. This includes 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid voters, and 19.26 lakh bulk voters.”
Though her identity hasn't been confirmed, the photograph was shot by Brazilian photographer Matheus Ferrero about eight years ago. It was uploaded online on March 2, 2017, on Unsplash, and has since been downloaded over four lakh times. The same image has surfaced on various profiles on LinkedIn, a national media reported, used for fake accounts claiming various identities from senior software engineers to office manager in Washington, DC and cloud engineer at L&T.
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Rahul raises questions over voter list irregularities
Rahul questioned how the very same image could figure in the official voter database of Haryana: "How was this manipulation allowed in the voter list?" he asked, accusing the Election Commission of "overlooking or encouraging irregularities". Countering Rahul’s remarks, BJP Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “Rahul is making these false allegations only to cover up his failures ahead of the Bihar elections.”
