New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday escalated his campaign against alleged electoral malpractice, launching what he termed “The H-Files” and dropping a political bombshell that he had earlier dubbed a “hydrogen bomb.”1 At the heart of his stunning allegations of systematic voter fraud in the recent Haryana Assembly elections was the revelation that a single stock photograph—allegedly of a Brazilian model—was used to register 22 different voters across 10 different polling booths in the state.
Gandhi’s press conference presented granular data, claiming that the manipulation was a centralized operation designed to “convert a Congress landslide victory into a loss” in Haryana, where the party ultimately lost by a narrow margin.
The ‘Brazilian Model’ and The 25 Lakh Fake Voters
Addressing the media, Rahul Gandhi displayed an entry from the Haryana electoral roll showing the photo of a young woman.4 “Who is this lady? What is her name? Where does she come from?” Gandhi questioned, before alleging, “She votes 22 times in Haryana, at 10 different booths, and has multiple names: Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vilma…5 But turns out she is actually a Brazilian model.
The model’s image, he claimed, was a stock photograph linked to a Brazilian photographer, Matheus Ferrero, and widely available on platforms like Unsplash since 2017.7 Gandhi used this as stark evidence of a deliberate, centralized scheme to manipulate the electoral rolls.
The Congress’s larger claims, based on their analysis of the electoral data, include:
- Total Alleged Fraudulent Voters: Over 25 lakh (2.5 million) manipulated entries in Haryana’s electoral roll of approximately two crore voters.
- Ratio of Fraud: Gandhi claimed that one in every eight voters (12.5%) in Haryana were fake.
- Categories of Fraud: The 25 lakh figure allegedly includes over 5 lakh duplicate voters, 93,000 voters with invalid addresses, and nearly 19.3 lakh voters registered in bulk at single addresses.
“Operation Sarkar Chori”
Gandhi dubbed the alleged manipulation “Operation Sarkar Chori” (Theft of Government), arguing that the narrow margin of the Congress defeat in the state was directly attributable to this calculated inflation of the voter list.12 He also pointed to alleged irregularities in postal ballots, claiming that the numbers differed significantly from the actual votes cast—a phenomenon he called a historical first for Haryana.
Gandhi appealed directly to India’s youth, saying, “This is about your future. I am questioning the Election Commission and the democratic process in India with 100% proof.” He further alleged that the Election Commission possesses software capable of deleting duplicate entries and cleaning up the rolls but has deliberately chosen not to use it to aid the ruling party.
The Political Fallout
The allegations come at a crucial time, just a day before the first phase of the Bihar polls, suggesting a national strategy by the Congress party to question the integrity of the electoral process based on technological and systematic lapses in the voter database.
While Congress provided a QR code that confirmed the photo was a widely used stock image, the identity of the model herself remains unverified.
The BJP and the Election Commission are yet to issue a detailed official response to this latest ‘H-Files’ presentation. However, BJP leaders have previously rubbished similar accusations by Gandhi, suggesting the opposition leader’s claims lack factual merit and pointing out that the Congress had not filed any formal complaints against the electoral rolls in question.17 The gravity of the “hydrogen bomb” now rests on whether the Election Commission will order a full-scale forensic audit of the Haryana voter database.
