Uttar Pradesh General Knowledge and Administrative Structure
Uttar Pradesh General Knowledge and Administrative Structure tests the state’s basic profile and the chain of administration from division to village. Questions are factual and often paired with polity numbers.
State profile
- Capital: Lucknow. Districts: 75. Divisions: 18.
- Legislature: 403 elected Vidhan Sabha seats; 80 Lok Sabha and 31 Rajya Sabha seats.
- High Court: Allahabad, established 1866, with a bench at Lucknow.
- Formation: created as the United Provinces on 1 April 1937 and renamed Uttar Pradesh on 24 January 1950.
- State symbols: sarus crane, swamp deer, Ashoka, palash and mango.
The 18 divisions
Agra, Aligarh, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Basti, Chitrakoot, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Saharanpur and Varanasi.
Administrative tiers
- Division: headed by the Divisional Commissioner.
- District: District Magistrate/Collector; police headed by SP/SSP.
- Tehsil: Sub-Divisional Magistrate.
- Block: Block Development Officer.
- Gram Panchayat: elected village body.
- Panchayati Raj: gram panchayat, kshetra panchayat and zila panchayat.
Worked example
Question: which of these is not a division of Uttar Pradesh - Chitrakoot, Devipatan, Sagar, Azamgarh? Reasoning: Chitrakoot, Devipatan and Azamgarh appear in the list of 18 UP divisions. Sagar is a district and division in Madhya Pradesh. Answer: Sagar.
Traps that cost marks
- Remembering 404 Assembly seats; the nominated Anglo-Indian seat ended in 2020, leaving 403 elected seats.
- Confusing the High Court’s 1866 establishment with the 1950 renaming of the state.
- Mixing divisions with districts; a division is an administrative group of districts.
- Forgetting that the Divisional Commissioner and the District Magistrate are different offices.
Exam approach
Memorise the 18 divisions as a list and pair each with one known district. Keep the number set - 75, 18, 403, 80, 31 - on a single revision card.