The tussle for the status of “real Trinamool” has now reached a stash of ₹675 crore in a bank vault.

Former Bengal sports minister Aroop Biswas has quietly moved to lock down a party account with a freeze request to a South Calcutta branch of a private bank.

So which Trinamool is he? Mamata Banerjee’s or the numerically superior rebels’?

Aroop would not let the cat out of the bag yet. “I’m with Trinamool,” he said on Thursday evening.

The freeze request, though, suggests that another old Mamata loyalist, whose many shenanigans she had refused to see for many years, has positioned himself clear of her.

Kalighat sources quickly disowned Aroop’s manoeuvre and speculated he might be working at the rebel bloc’s behest.

They alleged a conspiracy between the rebels and their BJP managers to hit Mamata with financial paralysis. They feared that the entire corpus of an estimated ₹1,400 crore in party funds, locked away in accounts controlled by Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, could now be at risk.

In a two-page letter, dated June 12 but delivered to and stamped by the bank on June 16, Aroop describes himself as the “treasurer of the party” and seeks “status quo on the accounts”.

He asks that “no debit transactions or changes in operational mandates be permitted until the dispute over the party’s control is resolved”.

But is Aroop the party’s treasurer? The question hung in the air amid competing claims. Mamata’s camp said Aroop had been replaced by former MP Subhasish Chakraborty during a June 5 organisational shuffle by the Trinamool chief.

Aroop, in his letter, expressed fears that party funds could be “utilised or appropriated by persons not duly authorised to do so”.

He warned the bank that he had in the past “signed blank or pre-approved cheques for organisational convenience” and now feared they could be “misused or presented for encashment amid the dispute”.

“At present, rival groups are claiming to be the legitimate representatives and office bearers of AITC, resulting in uncertainty regarding the authority of persons who may seek to operate the bank accounts maintained in the name of AITC,” the letter said.

“In order to safeguard the funds of the organization and prevent any unauthorized withdrawals, transfers, encumbrances or other transactions, I request your good office to maintain status quo and refrain from permitting any debit transactions or changes in operational mandates in respect of the following account maintained with your branch until the dispute is duly resolved or appropriate directions are issued by the competent authority.”

Kalighat, which had retained Aroop as general secretary even on June 5 under the assumption that he would stay with Mamata, was caught off guard by the move.

“Aroop probably struck a deal with the BJP. Nothing is a surprise any more. Give us a day to get some clarity on this,” a Mamata loyalist said.

Asked repeatedly why he did this, Aroop said: “I will say everything in a few days, not now. In a few days, everything... I will state clearly.”

Asked whether he was part of the rebel bloc now, he said: “I am with Trinamool Congress.… No more on this now, please... everything, everything is sub judice.”

He did not clarify the point, but the Mamata camp has moved high court challenging the Assembly Speaker’s grant of recognition to the rebels and anointment of their leader Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the Opposition.

Chakraborty, the other claimant to the treasurer’s job, claimed ignorance of any freeze request.

“I don’t know anything about this. I used to be the treasurer of the state party. Aroop was the national treasurer. But right now, there is only one treasurer, and that is me,” he said.

Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, still known to be a Mamata loyalist, said: “Aroop Biswas has not been the treasurer since June 5. Subhasish Chakraborty is the treasurer. So Biswas had no such authority after June 5.”

Ritabrata said Aroop was well within his rights to write to the bank to freeze the accounts.

“Who knows whether money from corruption, theft, cut-money... did not go into the account? I am going to request the Suvendu Adhikari government to probe it all,” he said.

“What he (Aroop) has done with the account, I fully support it.”