<p>West Bengal’s first woman Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is known for being a firebrand politician, a painter and even an author and a poet. She will now don the hat of a fashion designer, setting her sights on reviving the state-run handloom firm Tantuja.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The corporation, which till the mid-1990s displayed and sold a variety of ready-made garments, sarees and bedlinen through its many showrooms, fell out of favour with shoppers for failing to keep up with private retailers and garment manufacturers. <br /><br />With plans to change its lot, Banerjee has decided to give Tantuja a new look, and for this purpose she will even designs some sarees and fabrics.<br /><br />Banerjee raised the issue of refurbishing the handloom corporation and making it more market-friendly at a recent meeting, and showed interest in providing some designs. <br /><br />According to insiders, she has become a well-known painter simply for the novelty value of her work, and several leading industrialists even picked up some of her paintings when she put them up for sale for a variety of causes.<br /></p>
<p>West Bengal’s first woman Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is known for being a firebrand politician, a painter and even an author and a poet. She will now don the hat of a fashion designer, setting her sights on reviving the state-run handloom firm Tantuja.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The corporation, which till the mid-1990s displayed and sold a variety of ready-made garments, sarees and bedlinen through its many showrooms, fell out of favour with shoppers for failing to keep up with private retailers and garment manufacturers. <br /><br />With plans to change its lot, Banerjee has decided to give Tantuja a new look, and for this purpose she will even designs some sarees and fabrics.<br /><br />Banerjee raised the issue of refurbishing the handloom corporation and making it more market-friendly at a recent meeting, and showed interest in providing some designs. <br /><br />According to insiders, she has become a well-known painter simply for the novelty value of her work, and several leading industrialists even picked up some of her paintings when she put them up for sale for a variety of causes.<br /></p>