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LUCKNOW, India, Friday (AFP) A coalition of the socialist Samajwadi Party and India's main opposition Congress party was sworn into power Friday in the politically strategic northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav took the oath of office of the post of chief minister amid tens and thousands of cheering supporters including high-profile businessmen and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachhan.

Congress, which is the junior partner in the state government with Yadav's party, is expected to get important ministerial posts, improving its political leverage in the country's most populous state which has 166 million residents. Including Uttar Pradesh, Congress now holds power in 15 of India's 28 states, either outright or in coalition with other parties. The BJP, despite holding together a federal coalition since 1998, has been steadily losing ground at the provincial level and now rules only three states.

Five states are to hold assembly elections in November ahead of parliamentary polls that must be held by October 2004 but could be called early. The Uttar Pradesh political upset was triggered Monday when former chief minister Mayawati offered to quit over aborted plans for a shopping mall near India's famous 17th century Taj Mahal white marble mausoleum.

Yadav's Samajwadi party is the largest in the 403-member state legislature, with 146 legislators.

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