(This story originally appeared in on May 03, 2014)

NEW DELHI: Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer, has started to work on an exit plan after talks to sell its five wholesale stores to Sunil Mittal 's Bharti Group failed and the French company sees little hope of the government allowing foreign chains to set up multi-brand outlets in the country.Sources said there have been senior-level exits from Carrefour India and some employees may be asked to leave over the next few weeks as part of the exit strategy. The company has five stores in India (Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, Meerut and Agra).A text message sent to a Carrefour director Franck Kenner went unanswered. The French retailer recently shut down operations in several Asian countries.The 76-billion-euro retail chain is the first foreign retailer to plan an exit after the government failed to convince states to open up the multi-brand segment to overseas players. With the BJP and several regional parties announcing their opposition to FDI in retail, overseas players are left with limited options.BJP has announced in its manifesto that it will not allow FDI in multi-brand retail, while promising to push foreign investment in other sectors of the economy.Similarly, from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress to Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) as well as the Aam Admi Party, political support to the plan has been limited. In fact, Delhi and Rajasthan, which earlier had Congress governments, reversed the policy of allowing FDI.Chains such as Carrefour, Tesco and Wal-Mart had entered the wholesale cash-and-carry business, selling to restaurants, canteens and kirana stores, in the hope that multi-brand retail would be opened up. So far, only Tesco has managed to form a joint venture with the Tata Group, while Walmart has parted ways with Bharti and scaled down its ambition through a decision to operate only in the wholesale segment.Sources said Carrefour has held talks with several Indian groups to sell its five stores in India but its attempts have not borne any fruit, resulting in the company's plan to pull down the shutters and with the hope that it may return later.The UPA government had pushed FDI in retail as a major "reform" measure after it faced severe criticism of policy paralysis. But, Indian laws let state governments issue licences for opening stores under the Shops & Establishments Act, leaving the central decision as only one to facilitate the entry of overseas players.