Woman kisses Karnataka Chief Minister in public
Synopsis
The incident happened at a programme to felicitate newly elected members of zilla panchayats and taluk panchayats, organised by the Karnataka Pradesha Kuruba Sangha at palace grounds here.
Standing next to Chief Minister for a group photo, Girija Srinivas, who is Tarikere Taluk Panchayat member from Amruthapura in Chikmagalur district, all of a sudden in her moment of joy gave a peck on his cheek and walked away.
Siddaramaiah, visibly embarrassed by the incident, wiped his cheek with a big smile.
The Karnataka Chief Minister hails from Kuruba community. Speaking to a TV channel, the woman said she was happy that the Chief Minister was also a Kuruba, and called him a "lion of the community".
"I was overjoyed by the fact that I was standing next to him. My family and I have always called him "Appaji" (father)."
She also clarified that placing a peck on Siddaramaiah's cheek was not preplanned.
Srinivas hails from Varuna in Mysuru district which is Siddaramaiah's assembly constituency.
She is married to a man from Chikmagalur.
Speaking to reporters Siddaramaiah said, "that girl is like my daughter."
Siddaramaiah doesn’t have a daughter and is fond of girl children. He has two sons. When he became CM, he visited his friend and renowned writer Devanuru Mahadeva’s house.
Mahadeva has two daughters and when the CM saw them, he became emotional and said, “Mahadeva, I don’t know what you say, a home is a home only with girl children”.
Dinesh Amin Mattu, the CM’s media advisor says that whenever visitors and friends come to his office with their daughters, he gets emotional. He says that he has seen Gauri Lankesh (daughter of writer Lankesh and a senior journalist) arguing loudly with the CM and the latter showing no sign of irritation, rather, responding to her with a smiling face.
Recently, when a crow sat on the CM’s car, astrologers of news channels interpreted the incident as the precursor of an impending crisis for the government. It remains to be seen what they will make of the kissing incident. His renewed popularity, perhaps?