The 75-year-old former career diplomat, who had served as Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, will once again be the Chairman of Rajya Sabha by virtue of his election as Vice President.
Luck eluded Ansari recently when he could not not make a shift to Rashtrapati Bhavan as Pranab Mukherjee pipped him to the post in the Presidential race and had to settle for a second term in his current office.
He was the second choice of Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the President's post and some brinkmanship by TMC leader Mamata Banerjee and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav clinched the issue in favour of Mukherjee.
In the 2007 election, Ansari's name came as a surprise when the Left parties, supporting the UPA-I from outside, proposed him and the Congress-led alliance accepted it.
The Left parties, which faced divisions on the Presidential poll, however, had no no problems in supporting Ansari for a second time.
Affable and well-read, Ansari had also held the post of Chairman of National Commission for Minorities before he became the Vice President. (More)