And now Reliance Retail and Heritage Foods appears to be having trouble on its hands as separatist Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) picking up from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh, decided to launch an attack the company’s outlets.
Even before the formal announcement came from the party leadership, TRS activists staged a demonstration opposite a Reliance Fresh outlet in Warangal.
Reliance has opened a chain of outlets in Hyderabad and in several Tier-II cities in the State in the last couple of years. Heritage Foods, owned by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s wife N Bhuvaneswari, too has opened similar outlets fresh in several parts of the city. And so have some other corporates, offering items ranging from foodgrains to vegetables, and cosmetics to essentials commodities.
With malls mushrooming, tradespeople have been badly hit and many have downed shutters unable to bear losses. The TRS seems determined to arrest the trend and the same was made amply clear by party president K Chandrasekhara Rao here.
Speaking to mediapersons, he said TRS cadres would “would launch attacks on outlets of Reliance, Heritage and other companies making the lives of small and petty traders miserable.” Going by Rao’s statement, it appears that TRS activists would be primarily targeting Heritage Foods. “As chief minister, Naidu talked about Rytu Bazars and, after losing power, he opened Heritage outlets.
This indicates his split personality,” the TRS chief said while asserting that the raids would be launched soon. Reliance had faced the wrath of tradespeople in Uttar Pradesh a couple of months ago.