Start Activity Intent on Clicking Text Inside Webview

I have a webview in my xml which goes like below:

 <WebView
        android:id="@+id/webView"
        android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

I am loading the webview like this:

String webView_text = "Lorem ipsum..............**<a><u>Link to fire intent</u></a>**";

 WebView webView= (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView);
webView.loadData(String.format(htmlText, webView_text), "text/html", "utf-8");
        webView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient()
        {
            // Override URL
            public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url)
            {
                Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),OtherActivity.class);
                startActivity(intent);
                return true;
            }
        });

Please notice that I am creating the link in my string (webView_text) by using the html tag and overriding the function to fire an intent. It is not doing in this case. What is the problem here? I am not sure if Android Webview supports the tag (I believe it should). What is my mistake here.Thanks in advance.