Kochi: Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Minister C.N. Balakrishnan died at a private hospital here due to pneumonia, party sources said on Tuesday. He was 87. He died on Monday night, the sources said.

A long-standing aide of former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, Balakrishnan was the Thrissur district Congress committee president for 17 years and was also the treasurer of the state unit for long.