Reliance to revive operations in West Bengal after truce with Forward-Bloc

The strong opposition felt by Reliance Retail because of the resistance offered by the Left Front ally Forward Bloc, has now weakened after a truce between the two sides. The party is now willing to send fresh proposals to Mukesh Ambani for doing business in Bengal. The Bloc-controlled West Bengal Agriculture Marketing Board (WBAMB) will soon enter into a joint venture with M K Jalan’s Keventer Group to market agri-products in the state. It is the same group that the party had resisted when the company joined hand with Reliance Retail to sell farm produce in the state. The party wants Reliance to apply for the APMC (agricultural products marketing control) licence all over again. It is also declared that new joint venture is likely to market agri-products, under the brand name ‘Bengal Fresh’, to the players like Reliance, Spencer's, More and Food Bazaar - some of those companies it earlier rebuffed to issue the APMC licence required to market agri-products. Mukesh Ambani had earmarked Rs 4,000 crore investments in June 2006 for an agri-retail chain in the state, but after facing with the party’s resistance, the group opted for the shop-in-shop retail model in Bengal, allowing Keventer to sell fruits and vegetables from its retail stores.