Eyeing Buddhist voters, Kangana Ranaut meets Dalai Lama

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, April 15

Bollywood actress and BJP candidate from Mandi parliamentary constituency, Kangana Ranaut today met the Tibetan spiritual head the Dalai Lama at his residence in McLeodganj today morning. The meeting of Kangana was being seen an attempt to please the Buddhist voters in Mandi parliamentary constituency who were sore with her over the comments she made about a meeting between the Dalai Lama and the US President Joe Biden.

Kangana had last year tweeted a meme which featured Dalai Lama and read, “The Dalai Lama receives a warm welcome at the White House”. The tweet seemed to be in reference to a video of Dalai Lama kissing a child on the lips went viral. It received mixed reactions on the Internet. The incident happened at a public gathering in February at the Tsuglagkhang temple in Dharamsala. The Tibetan government in exile authorities had alleged the viral video as a Chinese propaganda against the Dalai Lama.

After the tweet Tibetan had organised a protest outside the residence of Kangana in Mumbai. After that Kangana had withdrawn her tweet and termed it as a harmless joke.

The Mandi parliamentary constituency has significant numbers of Buddhist voters. The Buddhists hold the Dalai Lama in high reverence and many are his followers. Today’s visit of Kangana to the Dalai Lama seemed to be an attempt to mollify the Buddhist voters.

Later Kangana also campaigned for BJP candidate Sudhir Sharma and addressed a public rally in Dharamsala Assembly constituency.