The agreement on a common leader of the BJD Legislature Party, which had vertically split, came at a meeting between a six-member dissident MLAs' team and Naveen Patnaik here this afternoon, ending the three-week impasse that had threatened to pull apart the fledgling BJD.

Patnaik had convened a meeting tomorrow to finalise the leadership issue. Party sources said that both sides had urged Patnaik to take early steps to ensure unanimous election of the leader.

The rebels told the party chief to choose the BJDLP leader who had the requisite experience and image, they said. Patnaik held telephonic talks with rebel leader Bijoy Mohapatra during which they discussed the BJDLP leadership issue, the sources said.