The CPI(ML) Liberation, which has been spearheading the agrarian revolution in central Bihar for nearly 30 years, came up with the idea.

The elections to panchayats in Bihar were last held in 1978, before the government halted them pending the resolution of a court case. Though in 1996, the then chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav promised to hold the polls the moment the court gave its verdict, his party's government has not taken any initiative to pursue the matter.

Deciding that the people had waited enough, a CPI(ML) Liberation outfit, the Jharkhand Majdoor Kisan Samiti,recently announced that it would hold panchayat elections in 71 of the 146 villages of Bagodar block of Giridih by December 13.

Senior party leader and the moving spirit behind the step, Mahendra Singh, says elections have already been completed in at least six villages and would be over in the others too by December 13.

No help was taken from the government. The Samiti made its own voters' list. To meet the election expenditure, villagers were asked to donate Rs 2 per kitchen and the candidates Rs 25 as nomination paper fee.

In order to make the process even more democratic, voters have been given the right to recall their representatives.

If 25 per cent of the voters of a particular village protest against their representative to the Samiti in writing, says Singh, the village chief would have to quit. However, he would be given a chance to prove his majority in a fresh election within a week. Singh calls this a step towards ``inner democracy'', pointing out it gives villagers the power to monitorthe performance of their representatives.

However, while they have embraced the power wholeheartedly, it is up to the state government to acknowledge it. Will it accept these parallel panchayats, and will the latter be able to get any work done from Bihar's notorious officialdom?

Singh feels there is no way out. ``The gram pradhans would have to pressure the officals,'' he says. ``The parallel panchayats would continue till fresh elections.''

He also points out that in the absence of elected representatives, almost all programmes for the poor have gone unimplemented. If Giridih is any indication, people in Bihar are now taking matters in their own hands.

According to Singh, almost 99 per cent of the voters came out in these villages to elect representatives truly their own.