Donald Trump, Ben Carson among 8 leaders to qualify for prime time debate

WASHINGTON: Only eight candidates have qualified for next week's prime time debate for the Republican Party's presidential candidates with Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush making the cut while Indian-American Bobby Jindal relegated to the undercard debate.

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, who once was a rising star of the Republican Party, has been relegated to the undercard debate along with Jindal and two other presidential aspirants -- Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum -- as their popularity ratings in recent national opinion polls is less than 2.5 per cent but more than one per cent.

In the new criteria released by Fox News -- which would be hosting and conducting the debate on November 10 -- former New York Governor George Pataki, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, did not qualify for the either of the debates.

"It doesn't matter the stage, give me a podium and I'll be there to talk about real issues," Christie said after the lineup was announced yesterday.

The main stage for the prime time date would now be shared by -- Trump, Carson, Marco Rubio, Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul.

The debate is being conducted by Fox News in partnership with The Wall Street Journal.

The undercard debate would start at 7 PM on Tuesday (5:30 AM IST on November 11) and the main prime time debate would start at 9 PM Tuesday (7:30 AM IST Wednesday).