She is the other woman who shot into the spotlight after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited her shack in Vidarbha and mentioned her in his speech in Parliament in support of the Indo-US nuclear deal last year.

But unlike Kalavati Bandurkar, who got drawn into funding controversies and even filed her nomination for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, only to withdraw after a series of flip-flops, landless farm labourer Shashikala Rengane has been working quietly for the Congress.

As the invisible poster girl for the party in this Vidarbha hamlet, Shashikala starts each day by praying to a giant photograph of Rahul with her family. While her husband Prahlad has been campaigning for Congress candidate Sanjay Deshmukh of Digras constituency, of which Sonkhas is a part, her three young sons speak up for the party in their college in Yavatmal.

“He is god for me and my family. We were hungry before Rahulji visited our house. Now we eat well and live well,” says Shashikala, who says she is between 35 and 40 years of age. “I tell villagers that there was no electricity in my place but it is because of Rahulji and Congress that we now have power. They have seen the change in my life and if this village also needs change then people should vote for the Congress.”

In his July 22 speech in Parliament, Rahul had recalled his visit to Sonkhas where he said he met the Renganes who earn Rs 150 a day between them but still send their children to private schools. The boys study under a brass lamp and want to make it big in life, he had said, and underlined the need for energy security.

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