3-(thiazol-2-yl carbamoyl) propanoic acid was synthesized by the reaction of 2-aminothiazole and succinic anhydride, which was employed as ligand (LH) for further reaction with Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) and Bi(III) chlorides at ambient conditions to afford respective metal complexes, denoted as Co-L2, Ni-L2, Cu-L2, Zn-L2 and Bi-L3. Both the ligand LH and metal complexes were characterized by techniques FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, powder XRD, TGA and conductometry. FT-IR and NMR studies revealed that ligand (LH) behaved in anisobidentate fashion via carboxylate moiety. The ligand and metal complexes are also screened for their antibacterial and antifungal potential and found non-significant activities by most of the complexes, luminescent studies were also made and found Bi-L3 appreciably luminescent.