Ever since his third electoral victory in Gujarat last December, Narendra Modi has been going places. After his formal nomination as the main opposition NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, his travel schedule has become only more hectic. In the last week of September, for example, he went to Bhopal, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi and Mumbai.

He will have to remain frequent flyer no. 1 till the elections: that is his preference as well as necessity. Preference, because many people love his oratory and he loves crowds. Necessity, because for the BJP/NDA, it is going to be a campaign centred on a personality or an individual, as opposed to issues. In the 2002 assembly elections, Modi went to every district of Gujarat with this controversial Gaurav Yatras (pride rallies – this in the aftermath of the riots). By 2012, he had got some help from technology, with live, three-dimensional casting of his speeches simultaneously at dozens of towns, virtually reaching out to fans and potential voters. In the months to come, expect him to come up with some technological solution to the problem of being, well, all over the place. Because, in the absence of new allies, Modi will have to reach out to as many constituencies across the country as he can to cross the 272-mark.

Reports indicate that fans can’t have enough of him, and he has clicked and connected with people in places like Kerala where his party has negligible presence. While his supporters in Gujarat would be happy and take pride in his popularity outside the state, there’s a bit of a problem with this trend: he is more and more frequently absent from Gandhinagar itself, away from the job he was mandated to do.

Thus, it so happened that in the same last week of September that he was on his cross-country trip, 13 people died in floods in Surat and other parts of the state. Anandi Patel, revenue and urban development minister and one of the two or three names doing rounds as Modi’s successor, chaired an emergency meeting to decide on relief measures. The Congress objected saying that the state government was focusing more on Modi’s publicity than on flood relief. A case in point: of the seven releases from the information department that day, September 26, five were on Modi's tour to south India.

Modi’s supporters would find nothing but petty politics in the Congress reaction, and of course the PM-candidate of the main opposition party can’t be expected to spend six days a week in Gandhinagar. But then he should quit one of the two roles he has taken up for himself, and pave the way for a fulltime, residential CM of Gujarat. He has not even indicated that possibility, which is a reflection of his confidence, rather lack of it, to touch the majority mark. That’s fine, but at the least, he can formally nominate a number 2 in his cabinet, but that too is not happening, leaving the scene open to the two-three contenders to fight it out.