The wheel's turned a full circle now. It's the reporters' turn to make a beeline to their offices and wait for that precious quote. But then, in a democracy, that's the way it should be. The younger cadres of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who warmed the opposition benches for aeons, have finally made it big where it counts.

While some have risen from the ranks to become councillors and standing committee members, Umakant Joshi -- fondly called Umo by partymen -- has just completed two days as the first citizen of Vadodara. Not too many people resent their success. ``While in the youth wing, they worked very hard to popularise the Bharatiya Janata Party. ``The party was not that well established then'', acknowledges a senior party leader.

Joshi makes no bones about his beginnings. ``When I joined the Jan Sangh in the '70s, I had no aspirations for a post. The party has selected me on the basis of my work and the opinion of councillors'', says the mayor.

But the transition was made easier by the association with the press. After all, the names of Joshi, school board chairman Balkrishna (Kishan) Sheth, board member Bhupendra Kachhia, councillors Yogendra Sukhadia, Kiran Gurjar, Arvind Patel and State committee member Milind Ambegaokar became commonplace in the vernacular newspapers even when they were in the youth wing of the party.

``The liaison certainly helps'', says Joshi, while maintaining that the same people would write negatively about him if he failed to perform to expectations.

So close are his ties with the Press that immediately after he became mayor, a reporter quipped, ``Umakant, jojo bhulthi pressnote apva na avta (Don't come to us with a pressnote by mistake)''. But the mayor says he just might. ``Because of my association with the party's media cell, I still don't mind writing pressnotes'', he told Express Newsline.

But the fact is that they have been seen less and less in the newspaper offices as they worked their way up. ``That's because of the workload'', says Sheth.

But old habits die hard. So some of the Bharatiya Janata Party's middle-aged stars still call up newspapers to inquire if a press release has been received. And yes, it's followed with a request for ``justice, please''!