An old image of CEC Rajiv Kumar with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is shared as recent linking to Union Budget presentation 2025

Viral image showing CEC Rajiv Kumar with Nirmala Sitharaman is from February 2020

On 1February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget of 2025-26 in Parliament. This was Nirmala Sitharaman’s eighth Union Budget. 

In this context, an image of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar with Nirmala Sitharaman has gone viral on social media with the claim that Rajiv Kumar was seen with the BJP government during the budget presentation.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a google reverse image search on google and the results led us to several media reports from1 February 2020, featuring the same viral image. As per the reports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21 in Parliament. 

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In further search, we found the original image published by the Press Information Bureau on 1 February, 2020, 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 the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur and the senior officials to present the General Budget 2020-21, in New Delhi on February 01, 2020.” 

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It should be noted that Rajiv Kumar, pictured here, was the finance secretary at the time, not the election commissioner. According to the Election Commission of India’s official website, he served as the Finance Secretary from July 2019 to February 2020. He was then Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board from April to August 2020. In September 2020, he was appointed Election Commissioner, and in May 2022, he became the Chief Election Commissioner.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral image to be Misleading. This image is from 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 image.