The Syndicate was the informal name given to a group of Congress leaders who were in control of the party organisation. It was led by K. Kamraj, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the President of the Congress party. It included powerful State leaders like S. K. Patil of Bombay city (later named Mumbai), S. Nijalingappa of Mysore (later Karnataka), N. Sanjeeva Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and Atulya Ghosh of West Bengal. Both Lal Bahadur Shastri and later Indira Gandhi owed their position to the support received from the Syndicate. This group had a decisive say in Indira Gandhi's first Council of Ministers and also in The policy formulation and implementation. After the Congress split the leaders of the syndicate and those owing allegiance to them stayed with the Congress (O), since it was Indira Gandhi's Congress (R) that won the test of popularity; all these big and powerful men of Indian politics lost their power and prestige after 1971.

Who was the leader of Congress (R)?
1. Morarji Desai
2. Lal Bahadur Shastri
3. Indira Gandhi
4. S.K. Patil

3

The leader of Congress (R) was Indira Gandhi.

The split within the party was definitively affirmed with the defeat of the official Congress candidate in the presidential elections of 1969. Following this, the Congress President took the step of expelling the Prime Minister from the party, asserting that her faction constituted the genuine Congress. By November 1969, the Congress group aligned with the 'syndicate' acquired the label Congress (Organisation), while the faction led by Indira Gandhi became recognized as the Congress (Requisitionists). These two factions also became colloquially known as the Old Congress and the New Congress. Indira Gandhi framed this division as an ideological contrast, emphasizing the schism between socialists and conservatives, and between those advocating for the underprivileged and those aligning with the affluent.