Following nearly minute-to-minute progress of an arrival in the capital, with live television coverage and uber-excited anchors jotting down the journey, is usually meant for a triumphant sports team/individual, or in some cases big-time dignitaries. Not many people are interested in following such mundane details, and the TRP-savvy television honchos know that better than their breakfast loaf.

So it had to be Narendra Modi to get Delhi get to work on a chilly, overcast Wednesday morning: yes, he has arrived, as TV channels announced; yes, he has had a meeting with the prime minister, as TV channels announced; and yes, the meeting is over.

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If the national capital’s dyed-in-the-wool journalists are getting worked up, eyes focussed already on Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), where the Gujarat chief minister is scheduled to talk on emerging business models and the Gujarat model of growth later in the day (read our earlier story on his visit here), and ears pinned all over to pick up even a nuanced hint of his prime ministerial ambitions post-2014, it’s not for nothing. The last time Modi came to Delhi was on December 27, for the National development Council (NDC) meeting, and, along with his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa who made a dramatic walkout of the meeting, garnered most attention among the attending chief ministers.

It’s Modi’s second visit in a month and half, and much speculation is already on whether he is practising the changeover from Ahmedabad to New Delhi to make it with elan.

Modi himself, though, isn’t giving out much. After meeting Manmohan Singh at the prime minister's residence, Modi told the waiting media persons: "I came to meet the prime minister for the first time after the formation of new government (in Gujarat). I had a long discussion with the prime minister. The meeting was very cordial and I discussed several pending projects with the prime minister.

“The PM has assured of help and cooperation for development in Gujarat.”

While new BJP president Rajnath Singh had earlier asked party leaders to be quiet, and not rush to the media with their Modi-for-PM chorus after senior leader Yashwant Sinha made a similar remark late last month, it does not seem to have had much effect as the political climate assumes heat and moisture for more in the lead-up to 2014 polls. While Sinha and Ram Jethmalani had already made their choices clear, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and party MP Maneka Gandhi were the latest to join the chorus.

Modi’s visit is also significant since it comes days after the Congress formally heralded Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi as the party vice-president, giving him a bigger stake ahead of next year’s elections and almost formalising his stake as the party’s PM candidate.

While Delhi is not alien to Modi, who worked here after being forced to stay off Gujarat BJP in the aftermath of the Shakarsinh Vaghela rebellion in the mid-90s and worked for the party in the northern belt, the question is whether the riots of 2002 would return to haunt him here. A little bit of the question can be answered later this afternoon, when he speaks at SRCC, where a section of students and teachers have already planned to stage a protest outside the premises against his visit.

The buzz around the visit, though, is unshakeable, and many would watch every word he speaks and every step he takes to fathom any likely hint, clue or indication for 2014.