Indisputable master planner Chandrababu Naidu, very skillfully on Tuesday managed to divert the attention of the media away from YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's Rythu Deeksha to his protest against the proposed power tariff hike by the government. Mr Naidu and his team were helped by the police, who stopped the padayatra and took the TD chief and others into preventive custody, lodged them at the Banjara Hills police station for two hours before letting them go.

By the time Mr Naidu was released, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy's trip to Armoor was well underway and the TD chief's twin objectives, the declared one of protesting against the proposal to hike power tariff and the unstated one of diverting media attention from the Kadapa MP, were successfully met. Meanwhile, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy's sojourn into Telangana was, however, not without incident as women Telangana activists threw eggs at his convoy in Nizamabad town. Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy himself narrowly escaped the missiles as he had hastily rolled up the windows of his vehicle.

Amid widespread protest from Telangana activists in the area, the YSR chief started his 48-hour Rythu Deeksha at Perkit village of Armoor mandal on Tuesday night. A huge convoy of YSR Congress leaders and activists reached Armoor through Kamareddy and Nizamabad towns. On the way, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy interacted with turmeric farmers at Munipally and Ankapur on the Nizamabad, Armoor National Highway. He assured the farmers that he would fight for compensation for them for crop damages.