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NEW YORK. – November’s US presidential election is taking shape: Republican billionaire Donald Trump and Democratic power player Hillary Clinton look set for an ugly battle for the White House after a bruising primary season. Trump knocked out his only serious challenger Ted Cruz on Tuesday in Indiana’s key primary, winning 53 percent of the vote against 37 percent for the Texas senator, who raised the white flag and surprisingly pulled out of the race.

Over the course of the past 10 months, the 69-year-old Trump – a Manhattan real estate mogul with no political experience – has defied the odds, dispatching more than a dozen rivals with more conventional political pedigrees.

“We’ll unify the party. We’re going to get people together,” Trump said yesterday on Fox News after seizing the mantle of Republican standard-bearer. “I think we’ll beat Hillary Clinton.”

A new CNN poll looking ahead to the next phase of the White House race, however, found Clinton, the former secretary of state hoping to become America’s first female commander-in-chief, leading the billionaire real estate mogul.

The 68-year-old Clinton has 54 percent support to 41 percent for Trump, the poll showed – her largest lead since July. Tuesday’s contest in Indiana was the final firewall thrown up by Republican heavyweights to keep the brash, name-calling Trump from locking up the party’s nomination.

But as the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump’s favour, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forward. “We left it all on the field in Indiana,” Cruz said as he suspended his campaign.

“We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path.” It was a stunning denouement for the 45-year-old arch-conservative Texas senator, who had insisted he would press on to the final day of the Republican race.

Meanwhile, Ohio Governor John Kasich has dropped out of the presidential race after struggling to gain traction against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, US media report.

Kasich did not have a path to secure the nomination outright, but pledged to lobby for his candidacy during the Republican convention in July. Despite being a popular governor, Kasich only won his home state. – AFP/BBC.