CALCUTTA, July 10: In an attempt to make 88th Plenary Session beginning here on August 8 a success, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) will try to persuade veteran Gandhian and former prime minister Gulzari Lal Nanda to grace a pre-session function on August 4.

The WBPCC has drawn up plans to felicitate Nanda at the function, which according to the party expectations, would be attended by over 1 lakh party workers from the far-flung districts. Moreover, a team of WBPCC leaders have left for Delhi to consult top All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders on the issue, party sources said.

The function, which would take off with a padayatra in the morning from the Congress Exhibition Road, would be led by a chariot, specially made for Nanda, publicity in-charge Madan Mitra disclosed.However, Mitra, who acted as the party spokesman on publicity issue, said the WBPCC was not sure if Nanda would agree to grace the occasion.

``We would request the AICC leaders to appeal to Nandaji to give us the opportunity to honour him,'' he said.``And in case Nandaji turned down the request we will have no chariot during the function,'' he said, adding that ``however we would try our best''.Essentially to gauge the public mood and response, the WBPCC has decided to plan the function meticulously. Taking no chance with factional tension created by fight between Mamata and Soumen, WBPCC chief Soumen Mitra decided to rope in famous Bollywood stars, such as Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar and several others to grace the occasion.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.