Daraka (Birbhum), July 22: Abdus Sattar, not Pranab Mukherjee, is the first President the soil of Birbhum has produced.

Sattar, the ninth President of Bangladesh, hailed from Daraka, barely 2km from Mirati where Mukherjee’s ancestral home is located.

Daraka residents said they had wanted to invite Sattar to their village after he became Bangladesh President on May 30, 1981. Sattar held the post till March 24, 1982.

Sattar, who was called Bhulu Mian in Daraka, was born in the village in 1906. He studied in the village school till Class VI before shifting to Calcutta. He moved to Bangladesh in 1950.

As Mirati residents rejoiced and distributed sweets after their “bhoomiputra” (son of the soil) became President today, Sattar’s nephew Sirajul Islam recalled that the people of Daraka had written to Indira Gandhi requesting the then Prime Minister to invite the ninth President of Bangladesh to his native village.

But that never happened. Sattar was removed in a coup by H.M. Ershad in March 1982. Daraka last saw Bhulu Mian, who died in 1985, in 1976.

“We wanted to invite kaka (uncle) to his native village in 1982. Some of his friends and well-wishers had written to Indira Gandhi, requesting her to invite kaka to Daraka. But a few days later, he was removed from the President’s post,” Sirajul said.

Sirajul said Sattar had done his MA in political science and law from Calcutta University.

“My uncle left for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1950 and settled down there. He retired as a judge of (Pakistan’s) Supreme Court in 1969. Two years later, Bangladesh was born. My uncle could not visit Daraka after 1976 because of his failing health.”

Sirajul, who is in his sixties, recalled his uncle’s last visit. “He went around the village, meeting friends and acquaintances. He also visited one of his schoolteachers, Samjad Sheikh, who was 95 years old and very ill. Everyone in the village loved my uncle. We had hoped he would visit Daraka again but he could not make it,” he said.

Daraka residents are happy for Mukherjee.

Quaji Mohammad Jalaluddin, a retired Calcutta Municipal Corporation employee, said: “We wanted to felicitate one bhoomiputra but could not. We are happy that another bhoomiputra has become the President of our country.”

Both Sattar and Mukherjee hail from the Labhpur block. In Mirati, Mukherjee’s elder sister Annapurna Devi said she had never felt so happy in her life.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet that he has become President. We played together in childhood. He was always very intelligent and we used to say he would make it big one day. Now he is the topmost citizen of the country,” the octogenarian said.

Mirati residents rejoiced through the day. They distributed sweets and organised marches that went round the village and the adjoining Kirnahar town. The marchers, who included residents and local Congress supporters, threw green and pink abir at those lining both sides of the road. Many sang songs in praise of Mukherjee.