dynamically populating dropdownlist in page_Load

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C#

ASP.NET

I have 2 dropdownlists-

<asp:DropDownList ID="stateList" runat="server" Width ="170px"
                CssClass ="text" AutoPostBack="True"  OnSelectedIndexChanged ="stateList_SelectedIndexChanged">
            <asp:ListItem Value ="Andhra Pradesh">Andhra Pradesh</asp:ListItem>
            <asp:ListItem Value ="Arunachal Pradesh">Arunachal Pradesh</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value ="Assam">Assam</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value="Bihar">Bihar</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value ="Chattisgarh">Chhattisgarh</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value ="Goa">Goa</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value="Gujarat">Gujarat</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Value ="Haryana">Haryana</asp:ListItem>

</asp:DropDownList>

<asp:DropDownList ID="cityList" runat="server" Width ="135px" CssClass ="text" >
            </asp:DropDownList>

State and City values are there in the database. In the Page_Load the cityList needs to be populated and the specified city needs to be selected. Now, the cityList is being populated ,but when i give

cityList .Items .FindByText( cityname).Selected =true ;

it returns object reference not set to an instance of an object. What is wrong with this code?
I have given this code inside

if(!IsPostBack )
   {}

Thanks in advance

Nothing is selected by default. I have populated the cityList in the following way

cityList.Items.Add("Agra");
            cityList.Items.Add("Aligarh");