"Muslims should save democracy, they should maintain secularism and that is why they should support the INDI alliance," he said on Thursday.

Speaking to IANS, Ilyas said the Congress has made a lot of mistakes, "but no, it seems they are trying to learn from them. If they implement what they said in their manifesto, there will be change." "

The AIMPLB spokesperson urged secular parties to publicly support Muslim community issues, saying political parties "often take a back seat when it comes to the Babri Masjid issue or any other Muslim issue".

Earlier, while addressing a media briefing on the 14th Foundation Day of the Welfare Party of India, he said, "We feel that the upcoming Parliament elections are very important in deciding whether democracy will survive or the country will move towards autocracy... "

Ilyas further said that his party "has decided to contest the elections on a limited number of seats despite operations being spread across ten different states across the country".

“We are fielding our candidates only in four constituencies,” he said
, Dhule in Maharashtra and Dumariyaganj in Uttar Pradesh, in the remaining 539 constituencies, we will extend our support to the IND alliance... We consider them the only option to save democracy, protect constitutional rights and save the nation and its secular values . " He added.

Ilyas is the father of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid.