Members of Kotowali, the ancestral home of Congress stalwart A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury’s family, offered prayers in memory of Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday.

As party supporters and family members turned up, the discussion veered towards the former President’s special bond with the first political family in the district.

Mukherjee died on Monday, Khan Choudhury, who was a few years older, in 2006. In their heydays, Khan Choudhury and Mukherjee — both from Bengal and central ministers — had political rivalries and belonged to different camps, but Kotowali residents said they could not recall a single instance of public altercation between them.

“I had always seen that Pranab Mukherjee, whom I addressed as Pranab Mama (maternal uncle), had respect for Barkat Mama (Khan Choudhury). They used to discuss politics and other national and state affairs whenever they got the chance to meet,” recalled Mausam Benazir Noor, Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP and resident of Kotowali House.

Mukherjee did have bitter memories from Malda as in 1977, he lost Lok Sabha polls from the district. But the defeat didn’t come in the way of his intimate relationship with Malda and Khan Choudhury.

“Even on a brief visit to the district, Pranab Mama used to visit Kotowali. He was equally keen to meet Barkat Mama and all his relatives, including my mother Rubi Noor. Pranab Mama used to consider my mother as his sister. The demise of my mother had made him extra protective of me, and after I became MLA and MP consecutively, he volunteered to teach me the norms of Parliament...His death is a personal loss,” Noor said.

She added the family organised a small prayer in Mukherjee’s memory.

Isha Khan Choudhury, a Congress MLA and nephew of Ghani Khan, said Mukherjee was accessible to Kotowali people even after becoming the President. “My uncles, my father and aunt, all were very dear to him.... People used to tell us about the rivalry between him and my uncle, but we never felt anything like that in his behaviour,” Isha said. He added that Hasem and Naser, Khan Choudhury’s brothers, were also shocked by Mukherjee’s demise.

Like Malda, residents neighbouring Murshidabad district also recalled memories of Mukherjee, who was elected from Jangipur in the Lok Sabha elections.

From 2004 to 2012, he managed to bring in institutions to the area, including the Murshidabad campus of Aligarh Muslim University, a management institute, a regional passport office, an army recruitment office, an office of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and a number of branches of nationalised banks.