Rahul Gandhi’s ‘selfie’ with woman in dark sunglasses is AI-generated – Alt News

A photograph, which appears to be a selfie of Rahul Gandhi alongside a woman, went viral on social media amid the Congress leader’s recent Malaysia visit. It has prompted several users to demand a clarification either from Congress or Gandhi himself regarding the identity of the woman and the relationship between the two.

At the same time, many users have dug out an old photograph of Rahul Gandhi seated next to a woman wearing black sunglasses and a black shirt, identified as Veronique Cartelli. The two images are being widely compared by social media users, claiming that Gandhi has had a long-standing relationship with the said woman. 

There have been reports in the past about Rahul Gandhi’s ‘rumoured’ girlfriend, Veronique. However, we could not find any credible report where she had been identified in a photograph. 

X user Boiled Anda (@AmitLeliSlayer) shared the ‘selfie’ with the caption, “Sweet couple.” Also, the woman in the photo has been identified in this X post as the daughter of a drug lord. The post has reached around 1.3 million viewers. (Archive)

Sweet couple ❣️

Daughter of drug lord with Pappu pic.twitter.com/1wbrlp8SZg

— Boiled Anda (@AmitLeliSlayer) September 8, 2025

Another X handle named Indian (@hindus47) shared three images. One, the said selfie, and the other two are old images of Rahul Gandhi with a woman in dark sunglasses. The post accompanied a cryptic caption, “The story you are never meant to know,” indicating that these are secrets of Rahul Gandhi that never made headlines. (Archive)

The story you were never meant to know.
Hidden in plain sight. Ignored by the media.
This is about
Name : Rahul Gandhi
Party : Leader Of Opposition Congress

the secrets that never make the headlines pic.twitter.com/aD8WrH3ISI

— INDIAN (@hindus47) September 8, 2025

The post has approximately 200,000 views. 

Sharing two images — the ‘selfie’ and the old photo of Rahul Gandhi with the woman — pro-BJP influencer Rishi Bagree asked if she was the same person. The post has been reshared over 4,000 times and has reached 1.2 million users.

X account like केसरिया (@KESRIYAA), The Chronology (@TheChronology__), Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) and @MrSinha_ have amplified the image along with several other social media users:

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Fact Check

Looking at the photograph carefully, Alt News observed notable similarities with a recent social media trend in which users employ ChatGPT or other AI-based image generators to create seemingly “natural” selfies with celebrities.

A recurring pattern was observed in such AI-generated photographs: the backgrounds are typically blurry, often resembling overexposed streets with a handful of indistinct figures, giving the impression of a hurried, in-motion capture.

In the gallery below, the readers can find several examples of social media users artificially generating their images with a celebrity. 

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During our investigation, we traced the viral image back to an X account named Brown King, which shared it on September 8, 2025. The caption suggested the picture had been forwarded to him, with “Malaysia” mentioned as a clue. The user also mentions that the sender account has since been deleted. In the comments below his post, the user conceded that, according to ‘sources’, the image was AI-generated.

Someone sent me this. Who are these people? The guy who sent me had quoted “Malaysia” with this photo. Now it’s gone; he/she deleted their account. pic.twitter.com/OGEtqPJMC5

— Brown King (@Brownking__) September 7, 2025

In another post that was later deleted, the user shared an image showing Rahul Gandhi with a man, set against a similar blurry, overexposed background. 

Further research revealed multiple YouTube tutorials explaining how to create such artificial selfies with celebrities. In one video, a boy demonstrates generating a photograph of himself alongside Shah Rukh Khan by using a prompt in ChatGPT. In another video, a man shows how he generated an image of another YouTuber, IShowSpeed, next to renowned footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. 

There are several Instagram users, including creators like Jai Arora and Bheem Rav, who have uploaded tutorial videos for generating such pictures with the help of ChatGPT.

To test this, Alt News attempted to generate similar images using Rahul Gandhi’s photograph with the woman identified as Veronique Cartelli as a reference. We used two prompts given in one of the YouTube tutorial videos, which are as follows:

1. Take an extremely ordinary and unremarkable iPhone selfie, with no clear subject or sense of composition-just a quick accidental snapshot. The photo has slight motion blur and uneven lighting from streetlights or indoor lamps, causing mild exposure and the framing is messy, giving the picture a deliberately mediocre feel, as if it was taken absentmindedly while pulling the phone from pocket. The main character uploaded person’s character is uploaded person’s face) and (Rahul Gandhi) stands next to the person, both caught in a casual, imperfect moment. The background shows a lively Street at night, with neon lights, traffic, and blurry figures passing by. The overall look is intentionally plain and random, capturing the authentic vibe of a poorly composed spontaneous iPhone selfie.
2. Take an extremely ordinary and unremarkable iPhone selfie, with no clear subject or sense of composition—just a quick accidental snapshot. The photo has slight motion blur and uneven lighting from streetlights or indoor lamps, causing mild overexposure in some areas. The angle is awkward and the framing is messy, giving the picture a deliberately mediocre feel, as if it was taken absentmindedly while pulling the phone from a pocket. The main character is Rahul Gandhi, and Veronique stands next to him, both caught in a casual, imperfect moment. The background shows a lively Los Angeles street at night, with neon lights, traffic, and blurry figures passing by. The overall look is intentionally plain and random, capturing the authentic vibe of a poorly composed, spontaneous iPhone selfie. Veronica is in the first picture; she should have a normal facial reaction while wearing black sunglasses. Rahul Gandhi, in the second picture, should appear to take the selfie.

The results can be seen here:

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Below is a screen recording of ChatGPT generating two such images using one of the prompts listed above.

While the outcomes did not precisely replicate the viral image — likely due to variations in prompts and inherent unpredictability in AI outputs — several consistent elements stood out:

1. In the reference photo, Veronique wears black sunglasses and a black shirt. In every generated image, the woman appears in a black outfit with black goggles. This detail mirrors the viral photograph.
   
2. Her hair is tied up in the reference picture, and in all AI-generated outputs, the hairstyle remained the same —again aligning with the viral image.
   
3. AI persistently rendered the woman wearing dark sunglasses at night, a detail carried over from the reference picture. This implies that the prompts used to create the viral picture are quite similar to those used by Alt News.

A close examination of the image shows that Rahul Gandhi’s left eye looks oddly rigid and stone-like, with an unnatural gaze deflection, which is a common anomaly found in most AI-generated images. 

To corroborate our findings, we contacted Rahul Gandhi’s social media team and a member confirmed to Alt News that the image was fake.

To sum up, the viral selfie of Rahul Gandhi with a woman in dark sunglasses identified by some as Veronique Cartelli is not authentic and most likely AI-generated.

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