NCP president Sharad Pawar may be busy getting ready for the INDIA bloc’s meeting in Mumbai with other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents, but his close friend and industrialist Dr Cyrus Poonawalla has an advice for the octogenarian.

Poonawalla said on Wednesday that Pawar (82) had two opportunities to become the prime minister but things did not work in his favour. Now it is time for him to hang up his boots, he said.

“My advice to Sharad Pawar... He had two opportunities to become the PM but he lost them. He is a clever person. He could have served well (as PM) but those chances are gone. I am also getting older and he is also ageing and therefore he should retire,” said Poonawalla.

He was replying to a question about the split in the Nationalist Congress Party after Sharad Pawar’s nephew and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state last month.

The industrialist, whose Poonawalla group is the parent organisation of Covishield-maker Serum Institute of India (SII), was speaking on the sidelines of a “meet and greet” event connected with the Miss World 2023 contest, which is scheduled to take place in India later this year.

Sharad Pawar, who served as the chief minister of Maharashtra on four occasions, was also a Union minister. His NCP group, the Congress and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) are partners in MVA. The third meeting of the INDIA alliance will be held in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1.

Poonawalla appreciated ISRO for the success of its lunar exploration mission Chandrayaan-3. He said India has become the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon and called the achievement a “great honour”.

“Aerospace industry will greatly benefit with this success,” he said.

He also talked about SII being instrumental in bringing vaccines for malaria and dengue.

Poonawalla hosted the Miss World 2023 team in Pune at Ritz Carlton Hotel here. The attendees include Karolina Bielawska (Miss World 2022), Sini Shetty (Miss India), Shree Saini (Miss World America) and the pageant’s chair Julia Morley.

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