I believe that you need to handle the close widget event to control this behavior. Here is an example:
<input id="dropdownlist" />
<script>
$("#dropdownlist").kendoDropDownList({
dataSource: [ "text1", "text2" ],
close: _myClose.bind(this)
});
var _myClose = function (e) {
var wish = true;
var element = e.sender;
if (wish) {
e.preventDefault();
}
};
</script>
I am linking this so that you can take advantage of your class attributes. You can delete it if you want. A kendo widget instance is available under the e.sender object .
Here is a link to Docs . Hope it helps.