Panchayat member kisses Siddaramiah on cheek, calls him 'appaji'

Apparently overwhelmed by meeting Karnataka chief minister PC Siddaramiah for the first time, Girija Srinivas, a member of a panchayat from Chikmagalur district, kissed him on the cheek during a public meeting and addressed him as 'appaji' (father).

"I was overwhelmed by the sight of our chief minister," she said later. "I was a huge fan of our chief minister even during my school days. I couldn't control my excitement on seeing him up close."

Srinivas had grown up in Siddaramiah's assembly constituency, Varuna in Mysore, says The Telegraph.

She was standing next to the chief minister while posing for a group photograph at an event in Bengaluru when she suddenly kissed him on the cheek and walked away.

"My family always held him in high regard and I saw him like my own father," said Srinivas, a mother of two. But she said she is now worried about how she will be perceived in public. "I am from a very ordinary family from a village. It was an impulsive act," she said.

The chief minister later said: "She is like my daughter."