On 01 February 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2025-26 in the Lok Sabha for the eighth consecutive time. Amidst this, a photo of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar with Nirmala Sitharaman went viral on social media (here, here, here, and here), with the claim that Rajiv Kumar was seen with the BJP government during the budget presentation. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: A photo of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar with Nirmala Sitharaman during the Union Budget presentation on 01 February 2025.
Fact: The photo dates back to 01 February 2020, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2020-21. Rajiv Kumar, who was the then Finance Secretary from July 2019 to February 2020, is seen in the photo. The same photo was found in the gallery section of the official Press Information Bureau website, stating it is from February 2020. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A Google Lens search of the viral post led to several media reposts (here, here, and here) (archived here, here, and here) from 01 February 2020, featuring the same photo. The posts stated that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21 in Parliament. This photo was taken during the budget presentation on that date.
We found the same photo in the gallery section of the official Press Information Bureau website, with the caption: “The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, departs from North Block to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House, along with Minister of State for Finance Shri Anurag Singh Thakur and senior officials to present the General Budget 2020-21, in New Delhi on 01 February 2020.”
According to the Election Commission of India’s official website, Rajiv Kumar served as the Finance Secretary from July 2019 to February 2020. He was then Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) from April to August 2020. In September 2020, he was appointed Election Commissioner, and in May 2022, he became the Chief Election Commissioner. Reports from August 2020 (here and here) mentioned that the Union Ministry of Law and Justice approved his appointment as the third Election Commissioner after Ashok Lavasa’s resignation.
To sum up, an old photo of CEC Rajiv Kumar with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is shared as a recent one taken before the 2025 Union Budget presentation.
