Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday it’s “big news” that Ohio Gov. John Kasich decided to “pull out” of Indiana, even as Mr. Kasich downplayed the candidates’ newly-announced alliance and declined to tell his own supporters they should not vote for the Ohio governor in the state.

“We are all in on Indiana. We are competing in this great state. Indiana is a crossroads — it is a crossroads for the entire country,” Mr. Cruz told reporters in Indiana. “It is big news today that John Kasich has decided to pull out of Indiana to give us a head-to-head contest with Donald Trump.”

“That is good for the men and women of Indiana — it’s good for the country to have a clear and direct choice,” Mr. Cruz said.

In a bid to stop GOP front-runner Donald Trump from accumulating delegates, the Cruz campaign has announced it would clear the way for Mr. Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico, while the Kasich campaign said it would shift resources out of Indiana, which votes May 3.

Recent polls have shown Mr. Trump with a narrow edge over Mr. Cruz in Indiana, where there are 57 delegates up for grabs.

“This is entirely about the will of the people,” Mr. Cruz said. “This is about winning the votes of the Hoosier State — giving Indiana the opportunity to choose.”

But asked just earlier Monday who he was going to tell his supporters to vote for in Indiana, Mr. Kasich said they should still vote for him.

“I’ve never told them not to vote for me. They ought to vote for me,” Mr. Kasich said at a campaign stop in Philadelphia. “But I’m not over there campaigning and spending resources.”

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has labeled the move a “horrible act of desperation.”

“I don’t doubt that Donald Trump is going to scream and yell and curse and insult, and probably cry and whine some as well,” Mr. Cruz said. “That has been Donald’s pattern.”

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