What does the ‘Syndicate’ refer to?

The correct answer is Option (1) → A group of powerful and influential Congress leaders who were in control of the party’s organisation.

Option (1) A group of powerful and influential Congress leaders who were in control of the party’s organisation. — Correct. Syndicate was the informal name given to a group of Congress leaders who were in control of the party’s organisation, led by K. Kamraj.

Option (2) An elected representative leaving the party on whose ticket he has been elected — Incorrect. This is defection: an elected representative leaves the party on whose symbol he or she was elected and joins another party. After 1967 it made and unmade governments in the States and gave rise to the expression ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’; it has nothing to do with the Syndicate.

Option (3) A group of anti-Congress politicians who were critical of the dominance of the Congress system — Incorrect. The Syndicate was a group of leaders inside the Congress, not anti-Congress politicians.

Option (4) Parties with different ideological position coming together to oppose Congress and its policies — Incorrect. This is the strategy Ram Manohar Lohia named ‘non-Congressism’: opposition parties of different ideologies came together against the Congress, arguing that Congress rule was undemocratic. The Syndicate, by contrast, was a group inside the Congress.