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This study aims to characterise, for the first time, intranight opticalvariability (INOV) of low-mass active galactic nuclei (LMAGN) which host ablack hole (BH) of mass $M_{BH} \sim 10^6 M_{\odot}$, i.e., even less massivethan the Galactic centre black hole Sgr A* and 2-3 orders of magnitude belowthe supermassive black holes (SMBH, $M_{BH}$ $\sim$ $10^8 - 10^9 M_{\odot}$)which are believed to power quasars. Thus, LMAGN are a crucial subclass of AGNfilling the wide gap between SMBH and stellar-mass BHs of Galactic X-raybinaries. We have carried out a 36-session campaign of intranight opticalmonitoring of a well-defined, representative sample of 12 LMAGNs alreadydetected in X-ray and radio bands. This set of LMAGN is found to exhibit INOVat a level statistically comparable to that observed for blazars (M$_{BH}\gtrsim$ 10$^{8-9}$ M$_{\odot}$) and for the $\gamma$-ray detected Narrow-lineSeyfert1 galaxies (M$_{BH}\sim 10^7$ M$_{\odot}$) which, too, are believed tohave relativistic jets. This indicates that the blazar-level activity can evenbe sustained by central engines with black holes near the upper limit forIntermediate Mass Black Holes ($M_{BH}$ $\sim$ $10^3 - 10^6 M_{\odot}$).

Intranight optical variability of low-mass Active Galactic Nuclei: A Pointer to blazar-like activity