Aishwarya and Amitabh Bachchan in Uttar Pradesh for the inauguration of a girls’ school last month

Lucknow, Feb. 4: Damned if he doesn’t, slammed if he does.

That seems to be the tragic tale of Amitabh Bachchan, caught between Raj Thackeray’s tirade and the controversies he courted whenever he tried to do something in home state Uttar Pradesh.

If the rebel Sena leader has accused the superstar of doing nothing for Maharashtra, the state that has given him stardom, his critics in the heartland have panned him for getting more and doing little.

Bachchan, who is close to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, has been the target of political rivals for getting frequent tax waivers on films starring him and his son Abhishek from the previous Uttar Pradesh government.

But the Allahabad-born star probably never faced as much political heat as he did when he featured in an advertisement where he said crime in Uttar Pradesh under Samajwadi boss Mulayam Singh Yadav was less than in other states.

In another ad, the actor, who was named a brand ambassador of the state and made a member of the Uttar Pradesh industrial development council — called the “Amar Singh Club” by rivals — had praised the Mulayam regime’s effort to boost economic growth. He also said if he were born again, Uttar Pradesh would be his “chosen abode”.

The ads, aired in February last year, sparked angry protests from Congress and BSP leaders who accused him of misleading voters before elections.

In July, the Mayavati government said the Samajwadi regime had spent over Rs 2.3 crore in 2006-07 on the ad blitz. Bachchan, however, was not paid for the endorsement.

Last week, the Bachchan family opened a school in the name of daughter-in-law Aishwarya.

Earlier, in 2006, Bachchan came under attack when Abhishek was awarded the Yash Bharti, the state’s highest honour.

When the Barabanki land dispute broke out, Congress and BSP leaders claimed Bachchan was trying to exploit the state with the help of Amar to get land in Maharashtra.

The actor had bought the farmland to wangle a certificate declaring him a farmer to hold on to an agricultural land he had bought near Pune. He was later cleared of forgery charges by Allahabad High Court but lost the farmland.

Residents of Allahabad said the Congress, which had fielded Bachchan from the Sangam city during his brief stint in politics between 1984 and 1987, may have been behind Thackeray’s outburst against the actor for not choosing Mumbai.

Bachchan, however, couldn’t do much for his constituency as he resigned after the Bofors controversy broke out.

But residents of Allahabad today came out in defence of their famous son.

Ashoke Sharma, a retired Allahabad University teacher, said Bachchan’s gift to the city was two emergency medical vans he had bought with money from his MP’s fund.

He also got a slum regularised after taking up the issue with then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.“He was more our pride, an emotional strength,” said a resident.

“He always played an inspirational role for the state. It was wrong to expect anything concrete,” agreed Mulayam’s brother and former minister Shiv Pal Singh Yadav in Lucknow. “But it meant a lot to us.”