'This (Thursday) morning he left for Delhi by road. He checked in this hotel Tuesday noon,' an official at the Oberoi Group's Hotel Cecil told IANS.

Jaswant Singh, who had come here for the three-day chintan baithak (brainstorming meeting) of the BJP that began Wednesday, was told not to attend the session where the decision to expel him was taken.

While all BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj, were at the state guest house Peterhoff, the venue for the meeting, Jaswant Singh cocooned himself in his hotel and did not meet any of them.

'We had made arrangements for Jaswant Singh's stay at the state guest house. At the last minute, we came to know that he had booked his room somewhere outside,' said a senior party leader.

Jaswant Singh will remain an MP from Darjeeling, a seat he won with the support of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, which is spearheading a movement for a separate state in the hill districts of West Bengal.