diff --git a/pulsar-client-kafka-compat/pulsar-client-kafka_0_9/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/PulsarKafkaConsumer.java b/pulsar-client-kafka-compat/pulsar-client-kafka_0_9/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/PulsarKafkaConsumer.java
index 6d3c38319c80f..0a3526be354e0 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-kafka-compat/pulsar-client-kafka_0_9/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/PulsarKafkaConsumer.java
+++ b/pulsar-client-kafka-compat/pulsar-client-kafka_0_9/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/PulsarKafkaConsumer.java
@@ -218,7 +218,6 @@ public void subscribe(List<String> topics, ConsumerRebalanceListener callback) {
                 consumerBuilder.subscriptionType(SubscriptionType.Failover);
                 consumerBuilder.messageListener(this);
                 consumerBuilder.subscriptionName(groupId);
-                consumerBuilder.topics(topics);
                 if (numberOfPartitions > 1) {
                     // Subscribe to each partition
                     consumerBuilder.consumerName(ConsumerName.generateRandomName());