Why does Cordova/Phonegap append 8 to my Android Version Code?

Question

I am currently working on a Cordova project and had the problem that 8 was appended mysteriously to the versionCode of my project. For example: My original Version code was

Answer 1

O.K. seems like this is a major unresolved bug in Cordova Version 5 and up. Here is the link to the ticket.

I had no problem when removing the offending code from my build.gradle