He became the Congress President when people in many parts of the country had expressed their distrust in it in the 1967 elections. He chaired two Congress sessions in 1968 and 1969 held in Hyderabad and Faridabad respectively. Due to his untiring efforts, the Congress Party was re-invigorated. However, the factional feud between various factions of the party increased and finally resulted in the historic split of the party in 1969. He was the last president of undivided Indian National Congress and had to see his party being split into Congress (R) that supported Indira Gandhi, and Congress (Organization) or Syndicate Congress that consisted of senior leaders like Nijalingappa himself, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Kamaraj and Morarji Desai.