Kolkata, July 15 -- In a fresh blow to Mamata Banerjee, former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra has resigned from the All India Trinamool Congress and joined the rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee.

"... I had suggested to Abhishek Banerjee that he step aside for six months or a year. I told him, let us build the party, and then you can come back and take your seat but he refused. He said, I won't leave the party. The party is sinking, the boat has gone under. People are dying. Yet, the party decided or rather it was forced to accept that everyone else could die, but Abhishek had to be saved," Mitra, the MLA from the Kamarhati seat in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas, said.

The MLA, considered a close aide of...