Opposition lawmakers forced the house to shut for a second day as they shouted for the resignation of Shashi Tharoor, a reform-minded junior foreign minister in the Congress party government, over the financing of a cricket franchise.

In a statement to the house, Tharoor gave a point-by-point rebuttal to accusations he used his position to influence the $333 million bid for a team in the Indian Premier League, the world's richest cricket tournament, for financial gain.

"I have not benefited, and do not intend to benefit, in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage," Tharoor said, reading his statement to reporters outside after being shouted down in the house.

The Congress party had already been on the backfoot in the parliament session. It is trying to pass the budget and reform legislation with a thinner majority after two allies pulled out of the ruling coalition to protest a controversial women's bill.

Among other legislation, the government is eyeing passage of a bill allowing foreign universities to set up campuses on Indian soil and another to cut its stake in the State Bank of India.

It has already put on ice until it reaches a political consensus a bill to open its $150 billion civilian nuclear sector.

The government had also faced heavy protests over rising food prices and fuel price hikes, and criticism of its handling of the Maoist insurgency. The opposition has sought a special vote on food prices which would force the government to resign if it lost.

The row over Tharoor's role in setting up a new team has gripped cricket-crazy India, especially the allegation he helped obtain a stake worth $15 million, given for free to a woman Indian media say is Tharoor's girlfriend.

In his reply, Tharoor said the woman in question, Sunanda Pushkar, had obtained the stake on her own steam.

Tharoor, also an author and former U.N. senior official, is among a handful of political leaders watched closely for their ability to push an agenda to modernise India against conservative figures in Congress focused more on political expediency.