From correspondents in India, 12:00 AM IST

Wilfred D'Souza, president of the Goa unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former chief minister, late Tuesday resigned from the party's primary membership along with several key executive committee members.

'The party was formed to protest against the issue of (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. Since the issue is dead, it is pointless to have the NCP,' D'Souza told IANS after the state executive committee meeting late in the evening.

He added that nearly a dozen members had also resigned from the NCP's 32-member state executive committee.

However, the three NCP legislators in the Goa legislative assembly, two of whom are cabinet ministers, have not resigned from the party.

D'Souza has in the recent past complained that the party high command had been unable to assist the state unit in disciplining its legislators, especially Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco who has criticised the state unit chief on several occasions.

The decision to select Jitendra Deshprabhu as the alliance candidate to contest the North Goa Lok Sabha seat had also rubbed the former chief minister the wrong way, who was not keen on supporting his candidature.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)