In 1985, soon after the Congress won a landslide victory of over 400 seats, Rajiv Gandhi got parliament to pass the anti-defection law. In essence the law said the following: Any legislator who defied the party leadership on a vote would be seen as a defector and disqualified. Meaning that once the party issued a whip (a written notice to its legislators requesting attendance for a particular vote), the legislator could not vote as he chose but had to vote as the party wanted him to. Even if the legislator abstained from voting he could be disqualified. The vote need not necessarily be a confidence vote, linked to the survival of a government. The anti-defection law can be invoked for any vote that a party chooses.