The Union Budget-2025 was presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.
In the above backdrop, a photo of Nirmala Sitharaman posing with a panel including Anurag Thakur and chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar is being widely shared on social media.
Those sharing the image are linking it with the recent budget insinuating that Rajiv Kumar is a pro-BJP CEC invited to planning the budget.
A social media user shared the image with a caption that reads, “This viral picture is exposing the election commissioner. Rajiv Kumar of the election commission presenting the budget as an agent of the BJP government at the Centre.” (Translated from Hindi)
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral image is from 2020 when Rajiv Kumar was the finance secretary.
On a Google reverse image search, we found the same image uploaded by The Weather Channel on February 7, 2020. The caption suggested it shows finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman carrying budget papers and leaving for the Parliament to present the Union Budget 2020-2021.
We also found the image uploaded by NDTV Profit on February 1, 2020. The caption suggested that it shows Nirmala Sitharaman before presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21 in the Parliament.
The image was also shared by PIB which identified the persons in the image as Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur and senior officials departing from North Block to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House to present the General Budget 2020-21 in New Delhi on February 1, 2020.
A report by The Hindu stated that Rajiv Kumar was appointed election commissioner on August 22, 2020. Before that, he was the finance secretary.
The Print also reported on May 13, 2022, the appointment of Rajiv Kumar as the new chief election commissioner. The report stated that Kumar retired as finance secretary in the Union government in February 2020. In 2020, the Union government appointed him as to the head of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), the body that clears names of government officials for various top posts in public sector undertakings. Further, in August 2020, he was also appointed as election commissioner, succeeding Ashok Lavasa who had resigned to join the Asian Development Bank after having a tense relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.
Also, according to the website of the Election Commission of India, Rajiv Kumar took charge as the 25th chief election commissioner on May 15, 2022, and has been an election commissioner in the ECI since September 1, 2020.
Therefore, we conclude that the viral image is old and unrelated to the recent budget.
