Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the NITI Aayog meeting and requested him to “soften PM’s heart” in the matter of according special category status to the state, PTI reported.

“I met Home Minister to try and prevail upon him and also soften PM’s heart on special category status...,” PTI quoted Reddy as saying. He also said that he will raise the demand in the meeting of NITI Aayog’s Governing Council on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to chair the meeting.

The YSR Congress President urged the Centre to fulfill the commitments made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. He also spoke to Shah about sharing of river waters, division of assets and liabilities with neighboring Telangana, IANS reported.

This also comes few days after Modi said Reddy will receive all support from the Centre for Andhra Pradesh’s development.

Before swearing in as chief minister, Reddy had met Modi and spoken to him about the special category status, state’s financial situation and sought central funds. He had then said that he could only request the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government and not “demand or command”.

“Today, we might not get it [special category status],” Reddy had said then. “We have to be at somebody’s mercy but I will remind him [Modi] again and again and someday things will change.”

The special category status has been one of the primary demands of political parties in Andhra Pradesh since its bifurcation in 2014. The Telugu Desam Party, led by N Chandrababu Naidu, walked out of the National Democratic Alliance last year after the Modi government did not accord the status to the state. In July, the Telugu Desam Party moved a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government, which the government won after a 12-hour debate.

Reddy won the Assembly elections by winning 151 of the total 175 seats and swept the Lok Sabha elections, winning 22 of the 25 seats in the state.