President Murmu remarks: An old Mamata associate, a relative of the Adhikaris, who is Akhil Giri?

In 1998, when Mamata announced that she was quitting the Congress and would form a new party, Giri was among the first leaders from Midnapore who walked out with her. The Adhikaris, including patriarch Sisir and his son Suvendu, joined later.

Even as the Adhikaris rose within the TMC, Giri held his own, known as being the rare leader to not yield to the Adhikaris unlike other TMC members in Midnapore.

After Suvendu left the TMC for the BJP in December 2020, and the other Adhikaris too leaned the BJP’s way, Mamata turned to Giri and Soumen Mahapatra as her party’s faces in East Midnapore.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Giri won by a landslide from Ramnagar, earning him a seat in Mamata’s Cabinet. Given the Fisheries portfolio at first, Giri was recently handed over the Correctional Administration Department in a reshuffle.

Since his appointment as minister, Giri’s only son Suprakash has been on the rise and is now considered a prominent youth leader of East Midnapore.

The controversy Giri finds himself in though is unlike him, and he is popularly known in East Midnapore for being a “good organiser” and an “honest politician”, who connects with people in their own language.

A senior TMC leader of Midnapore said sometimes, while talking in the local dialect, “he gets carried away”. The leader also denied claims by some that Giri may have made the remarks to get attention. “Giri is very low-profile,” the leader said.