I added a new user voice for optgroup. You can vote for it here: http://feedback.kendoui.com/forums/127393-kendo-ui-feedback/suggestions/4203269-add-option-group-support-to-kendo-drop-down-list

What about optgroup?

This seems like a basic must have feature.

I would also appreciate a multi-select widget. In comparison to the other widgets i am wondering why this widget is not already a part of the controls.

I would also appreciate a multi-select widget. In comparison to the other widgets i am wondering why this widget is not already a part of the controls.

where i found multi-select widget in kendo ? Q1 2013 release is now, isn't ?

need multiple select in kendo ui badly.plz do ASAP.

We also MUST HAVE multi select. However, Chosen requires too many clicks for our users (2 clicks per item selected; 1 to open the drop down, 1 to select something, then drop-down closes). This sounds like a small thing, but we have very heavy users of our system, and extra clicks become pain points. A better method is for each option to have a check box, so multiple items can be selected or deselected by single clicks in one pass.

Yes please. I am trying to get KenodUI to be my one stop framework for widgets. We are converting all our jqueryUI stuff to use KendoUI and would really like something like Choosen so I don't need yet another .js reference and styles, etc.

please add...

Since we still don't know when this multiselect will be added into KendoUI, and we needed a solution.. I made an extension of the KendoUI DropDownList, naming it MultiSelect..

http://jsfiddle.net/mysterii0/Te8cY/ 

It's nothing fancy, I just wrote overrides to a couple of functions the DropDownList is calling.. It worked out ok for our needs. I hope some may find this helpful :] 

Multiselect is a must. We have a ton of usage scenarios for this. At the moment we use the jquery multiselect for that, but we are always concerned about mixing other plugins with kendo and would prefer not to do so (apart from the styling issues).

I would combine them. And instead use http://ivaynberg.github.com/select2/

I am getting a lot of calls for a multiselect where I work.  It would definitely be helpful.

Absolutely looking for the multi-select tag selection type of feature that Chosen offers.

Having a good tag selection control is highly relevant for the framework. This one got my votes

Multiple select in DropDownList...

Multi-select along with disabled support would be VERY nice feature. 

Very much agree with Glenn - we also need multi-select as in the Chosen box.
Would be great if this would be available soon... so we can stay loyal to Kendo ;)

+1 for this.  Especially the ability to group options together.