Senior Congress leader C.N. Balakrishnan dead (Lead)

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.

It was in 2011 that Balakrishnan first contested the polls and went on to become the state Cooperation Minister in the Oommen Chandy cabinet.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.