After targeting Congress strategist Ahmad Patel to scuttle his Rajya Sabha prospects, the BJP is now trying to make it tough for BSP chief Mayawati to stage a comeback in Parliament.

Mayawati had resigned from Rajya Sabha on July 18, which was about nine months before her term would have ended, to protest against Dalit atrocities in UP. She is, however, keen to contest by-polls if UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated Phulpur Lok Sabha seat to come to either Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad.

A minister has to be a member of either of two houses of the assembly within six months of formation of the new government.

And this period ends on August 19 for Maurya, second deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and ministers Swatantra Deo Singh and Mohsin Raja. While Adityanath is MP from Gorakhpur, the rest three are not members of any legislative house.

BJP sources said the party got active after it came to know that the combined opposition -- SP and Congress – wanted to jointly field Dalit leader Mayawati from Phulpur in the case of a by-poll. Maurya had emerged victorious in the BJP wave that swept the 2017 UP assembly polls by getting 5,03,564 votes while SP’s Dharam Raj Singh Patel managed 1,95,256, BSP’s Kapil Muni Karwariya got 1,63,710 and Congress’ Mohammad Kaif’s tally was 58,127.

The opposition believes that it may pull off the constituency in eastern UP in a direct fight with the BJP as in the recently held state polls the votes of all opposition candidates who fought on five assembly segments if put together were more than that of the saffron outfit.

The BJP leadership is working to avoid a scenario where the BSP, which had drawn nil in 2014 general election, manages to send its lone representative in the Lok Sabha.

At the same time, the party is in a bind on Maurya’s fate. The BJP top brass has received, said party sources, a complaint from the CM against his deputy’s style of functioning.

Aditynath, the chief priest of Goraknath mutt, is believed to have expressed his anguish over Maurya’s refusal to listen to him and his lack of commitment to deliver on the office front. He is ministers for PWD, food processing, entertainment tax and public enterprise.

BJP president Amit Shah is expected to address the issues to bring harmony in the Adityanath cabinet during his three-day tour of UP that rolled out from Saturday. Shah will also take a feedback from the state unit leaders on prospects of Phulpur seat if it goes to polls.

Earlier, a section of the BJP leaders was nursing a view that Maurya, who is party’s state president, be shifted to the centre in the next cabinet reshuffle that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to undertake after Parliament session comes to an end on August 11.