New Delhi: UPA-left applicant Hamid Ansari has filed his papers for the Vice Presidential elections.

The first applicant to file the nomination was Rasheed Masood, sitting Samajwadi Party MP from Uttar Pradesh on July 20. He has been fielded by the multi-party United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). The elections are to be held on August 20.

Ansari has wealth of knowledge as a famous diplomatist, educational and a writer in a career spanning over four decades.

He has carved out a distinguishable position for himself as a diplomat, academician and a writer specializing in international issues.

He was born in Calcutta in 1937, and studied at Shimla’s St Edwards High School and St Xavier`s College in the West Bengal capital and Aligarh Muslim University. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1961 and has served as Indian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Ansari was also the Indian High Commissioner to Australia and New Delhi’s permanent diplomat to the UNs in New York.

He was also awarded Padma Shree in 1984. Ansari was the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University before he was nominated chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in March this year.