Guwahati, May 7: The Assam Congress today said those who have challenged the 1985 Assam Accord in the Supreme Court have vested interests and are trying to throw the state into another period of turmoil.

"If somehow the Assam Accord gets scrapped, there will be turmoil in the state and several people will be stateless," Assam PCC president Ripun Bora said here today. He was accompanied by leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia and senior party leader and former forest minister Rakibul Hussain.

Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, a confederation of indigenous people of Assam, had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging Section 6 (A) of the Citizenship Act, a result of the Assam Accord. The apex court has formed a five-member constitution bench which will decide the date of hearing of the case tomorrow.

"When the Accord was signed, peace had returned to the state after years of agitation. People had accepted the Accord for which they had voted for the leaders of the Agitation in the elections. With the signing of the agreement peace and understating had also returned to various ethnic communities of the state," Bora said.

"Those who have challenged the Accord have vested interests. They do not want peace in the state. They want to reap political advantage by throwing Assam into a pit of disturbance. But we are feeling good that many organisations have come forward in support of the Assam Accord," said Hussain.

Mahasangha working president Matiur Rahman told The Telegraph that it was the Congress which had been protecting the foreigners for the past 70 years. "The Congress wants 1971 as the cut-off year in the interest of keeping its vote bank intact. The Congress in Assam has many instances of making people from other states MLAs and MPs here," he said.

A 26-member delegation of the Assam Congress yesterday met President Pranab Mukherjee and Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking their intervention so that the Centre comes forward strongly in support of the Accord and convince the Supreme Court.

Bora said the PCC has apprehensions regarding the stand of the Assam BJP because before the election a senior cabinet minister of the state had spoken in favour of 1951 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of foreigners.

The delegation told Mukherjee yesterday that if the Assam Accord is scrapped, the process of updating the National Register of Citizens will become futile.