Prominent Brexit Steve Baker and red-wall MP Aaron Bell, part of the 2019 intake, have emerged as the favorite candidates of MPs hoping to force Mr Johnson out.
Elections to the executive committee of the 1922 committee, which represents backbench Conservative MPs, could help determine whether Mr. Johnson survives as Tory leader.
Current party rules stipulate that a second vote of no confidence in Mr. Johnson could not be held until at least 12 months had elapsed since the first vote on June 6, which Mr. Johnson did not win.
However, the 1922 committee has the power to recommend that these rules be changed.
One senior figure in the Parliamentary party said: “I think we are probably all going to stand in line, left and right of the party, behind Aaron Bell and Steve.
“We want people who are strong enough to oppose Boris, and those two are both strong enough.”
Steve Baker is a former chairman of the European Research Group, the influential backbench body that opposed former Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
He publicly urged Boris Johnson to resign in April and told the House of Commons “the action is up”.
Mr Bell was one of at least 54 Conservative MPs who submitted a letter asking for a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister. Johnson won with 211 Tory MPs supporting him and 148 voting against.
After the vote, he said the Prime Minister should be “given the time and space to turn this round”.
Andrew Bridgen, another outspoken critic of the Prime Minister, also said he would run for the 1922 committee’s executive.
Although all 18 seats in the executive branch are officially contested, only two existing members are retiring and the tradition within the party is for sitting members to be re-elected.
This means only two new members are likely to be returned, forcing MPs to vote tactically.
It is thought that a second vote of confidence could take place this year if a report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee finds that Mr. Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about rallies in No. 10.
Even the prime minister’s staunch supporters admit it will make it difficult for him to stay in office, although they maintain that the inquiry is unlikely to find that he deliberately lied.
Labor grandee Harriett Harman, a former deputy leader of her party, chaired the inquiry, which last week issued a call for evidence from anyone with information about “Mr Johnson’s knowledge of the activities at 10 Downing Street and the cabinet office below Covid regulations “as well as” any briefing given to, or inquiries made by, Mr. Johnson regarding those events “.
The committee has announced that it will interview witnesses in the fall, suggesting it is unlikely to publish its findings until late fall or early winter. Senior Judge Sir Ernest Ryder, former Lord Justice of Appeal and Senior President of Tribunals, has been appointed as an adviser.