UKIP leader Nigel Farage is expected to announce later if he will stand in the forthcoming Newark by-election.
The by-election has been brought about by the resignation from Parliament of former Tory MP Patrick Mercer over a cash-for-questions scandal on Tuesday.
Mr Mercer said he was "ashamed" of his actions and had decided to "fess up" by standing down straightaway.
Mr Farage said if he were to win a seat at Westminster it would "completely transform the landscape" for his party.
The UKIP leader said that should he win a seat in the Commons, and become an MP, it would enhance his party's "prospects", but admitted he did not have "connections with the local area" in Newark.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday evening, he said: "What I've got to work out is, is it the right seat for me?
"I haven't particularly got connections with the local area, but against that, perhaps I'm quite well known.
"So I've got to weigh it up, and by lunchtime tomorrow, I will have decided. I'm tempted."
Prime target
Under parliamentary rules, a by-election cannot be held before the date of the European Parliament elections on 22 May, thus removing one potential obstacle to Mr Farage - who is seeking re-election as an MEP - putting his name forward.
Former Tory MP Patrick Mercer: "What's happened has happened, I'm ashamed of it"
BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said a by-election would "alarm" the Conservative Party, which has already chosen 32-year old Robert Jenrick, a lawyer and director of auction house Christie's, to fight the seat.
Although the Conservatives have a majority of 16,000 in Newark, the seat would be a prime target for UKIP at a time when it is soaring in the polls, she added.
Mr Mercer has represented the Nottinghamshire constituency since 2001, and announced he had decided to "fess up" after he was suspended from the Commons for six months for allegedly asking questions in Parliament in return for money.
He was filmed by undercover reporters last year apparently agreeing to set up a parliamentary group to push for Fiji to return to the Commonwealth.
The MP had already said he would not contest the general election next year and had been serving as an independent since May 2013.
In a short statement, the former soldier said he would not contest the findings of a report into his conduct, to be published on Thursday, which will call for him to be barred from Parliament for six months.
He said he was resigning with "a great heaviness of heart" for the sake of his family and he hoped that his constituents would "tolerate" him in the future.
"I am an ex-soldier, I believe that when you have got something wrong, you have got to 'fess up and get on with it," he said.
"No point shilly-shallying or trying to avoid it. What has happened, has happened. I am ashamed of it. Therefore I am going to do what I can to put it right for the constituency of Newark."
The MP, a prominent critic of David Cameron who was sacked as a shadow minister in 2007, said that he hoped that his successor as MP for the constituency would be a Conservative.
Business interests
Robert Jenrick, pictured with his wife Michelle, has been selected to represent Newark for the Conservatives
The standards committee of MPs met on Tuesday to discuss Mr Mercer's case and its decision was reported by The Week magazine on Tuesday afternoon. A Westminster source has confirmed to the BBC that the report of a six-month sanction is correct.
Mr Mercer resigned the Tory whip last year after a report by BBC's Panorama claimed that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules by accepting £4,000 to lobby for business interests in Fiji.
Panorama alleged that he had submitted five parliamentary questions in relation to his paid work as a lobbyist for a fake company that the programme had set up, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph.
Parliamentary rules prohibit MPs from accepting money "to ask a parliamentary question, table a motion, introduce a bill, table an amendment to a motion or a bill, or urge colleagues or ministers to do so".
At the time, Mr Mercer said he took the money for consultancy work outside Parliament but referred himself to Parliament's standards watchdog.
The Labour Party - which held Newark between 1997 and 2001 - has selected Michael Payne as its candidate for the forthcoming by-election.
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