Uttarpara/Calcutta, Aug. 19: Trinamul Congress supporters stormed into an under-construction Reliance Retail outlet at Uttarpara a day after a Forward Bloc mob attacked another yet-to-open store of the chain in north Calcutta.

Police said the Trinamul raiders, led by local councillor Tapas Mukherjee, shoved a security guard out of the outlet and locked its shutters.

Around 30 people assembled in front of the shop at Bhadrakali Shibtala, about 15km from Calcutta, and started shouting slogans against the entry of corporate giants in retail.

The Bloc, which controls the farm products marketing mechanism in the state and has been vocal against Reliance’s foray, justified the vandalism yesterday and today.

“These are expressions of people’s fury. You can’t expect us to continue our political opposition to the entry of corpo-rate players in retail quietly while the government allows Reliance to open shops bypassing us,” state party secretary Ashok Ghosh said.

The police unlocked the shutters on the ground floor of an under-construction apartment. However, no arrest was made. “No complaint has been lodged,” an officer said.

The chairman of the Trinamul-controlled Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality, Pinaki Dhamali, said that he could not say from records whether the proposed outlet belonged to Reliance. “I have heard that it has been acquired for a Reliance Retail outlet, but officially it is not so as yet.”

But Mukherjee said he had no doubt about it. “We know it very well that Reliance has bought the space. While we were raising slogans in front of the shop, the guard asked us to move away. So we drove him out,” he said.

Last evening, Bloc activists went on the rampage at the chain’s Girish Park property, smashing windowpanes and flower pots. No arrests have been made in this case either.

The RSP and the CPI supported the Bloc stand on Reliance. All three have accused the CPM of allowing backdoor entry to Reliance by giving its retail project the status of food processing industry.

In Tamluk, the Federation of Traders’ Organisations, in which the CPI has a clout, and the East Midnapore Chamber of Commerce held a meeting to oppose the proposed Reliance distribution-cum-processing centre in Haldia.

It is one of the six Reliance “hubs” to have got the clearance of the CPM-controlled food processing and horticulture department.