The Conservatives are facing possible defeat as Labour and Lib Dem MPs team up to vote down proposals redraw constituency boundaries before 2015.
The two coalition parties have been in dispute since proposed elections to the House of Lords were dropped last year.
The PM wants to overturn a defeat by peers earlier this month, which would see the planned constituency shake-up postponed until 2018 at the earliest.
But with no Tory Commons majority, No 10 said "the arithmetic" was difficult.
The issue has been one of the biggest flashpoints between Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg since the two entered government together.
Parliament agreed in principle in 2011 to reduce the number of MPs by 50 to 600 and to redraw the electoral map to make all constituencies roughly the same size in terms of number of voters.
Coalition rowSome believe the proposals, which were backed at the time by both coalition parties, would help the Conservatives win up to 20 extra seats at a future election.
But a row over plans to reform the Lords - abandoned in the face of Conservative opposition - have since led the Lib Dems to say they will block implementation of the boundary review until after the next election, scheduled for 2015.
- The number of seats will fall from 650 to 600
- Almost all constituencies will have between 72,810 and 80,473 registered voters
- Three constituencies - Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney and Isle of Wight - will be excluded from this quota due to their distinctive geography
- Final proposals to be submitted to Parliament for approval by October 2013
- Lib Dems say proposed changes cannot come into force until after next election in return for Lords reform plans being dropped
Mr Clegg has argued the proposals on the make-up of the Commons and the Lords were part of the same package of constitutional reforms put forward by the coalition in 2010 and accused Conservative backbenchers of not honouring the initial agreement.
He has said that reducing the number of MPs without reforming the Lords gives too much strength to the executive.
But Conservatives insist that progress on the two issues was not linked and believe that Lib Dem government ministers should now vote in favour of the boundary proposals or resign.
The Tories argue that the changes would reduce the cost of Parliament and make elections fairer. They claim the current electoral map is weighted in favour of Labour, with more votes tending to be needed to elect a Conservative MP than to elect a Labour MP.
Labour has accused the Conservatives of "gerrymandering" - manipulating constituencies in order to achieve electoral advantage - and they argue the electoral quotas used to decide the size of a constituency do not take account of people who are missing from the electoral register.
When MPs consider the matter on Tuesday, Tories will look to overturn amendments to the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill which effectively put the whole process on hold.
'Smaller, cheaper, fairer'But Labour, which argues the boundary shake-up is flawed, is expected to join forces with the Lib Dems to oppose this.
This would be the first time Lib Dem ministers have voted against their Conservative coalition colleagues.
Asked if Mr Cameron was confident of overturning Lords amendments, his spokesman said: "From the prime minister's perspective, the arithmetic looks pretty difficult."
He added: "The prime minister's view is that it is very important that this issue comes before the House of Commons.
"The prime minister's view is that he is strongly in favour of smaller, cheaper and fairer politics but it is important that MPs can consider the issue."
The spokesman indicated that no talks were under way with smaller parties in the hope of securing enough votes to force the bill through.
Mr Clegg has said he hopes the vote will "draw a line" under the issue.
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